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2008
SESSION HIGHLIGHTS
Missouri NEA fought throughout the 2008 legislative
session for its priorities for children and public education.
A key focus was to protect the recently won collective
bargaining rights for all education employees. Many
proponents of anti-public education attacks regarded
the 2008 regular session as a last opportunity to those
harmful provisions before the 2008 elections. The possible
election of Attorney General Jay Nixon as a pro-public
education governor and election of more pro-public education
legislators to both the House and Senate in November
2008 offer the possibility that 2009 and following years
will offer fewer opportunities for those attacks on
public education to move forward in the legislature.
The 2008
session lived up to expectations: anti-public education
attacks were pushed with renewed intensity. In a session
where success was primarily measured in the defeat of
undesirable bills, MNEA was successful in stopping nearly
all of those harmful proposals. The Association also
sought to build relationships with legislators in support
of a consensus to support children, adequately fund
public education and respect the rights of education
employees. Over a thousand members supported the Association’s
efforts by coming to the new Missouri NEA Capital Action
Days, calling legislators or sending e-mails in response
to legislative-action alerts. In addition, the daily
MNEA Legislative Update provided timely information
by e-mail to more than one thousand MNEA members and
other education stakeholders.
COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING/MSTA ANTI-BARGAINING BILL
MNEA’s highest legislative priority in 2008 was
to protect the newly-won collective bargaining rights
for public education employees. In a historic decision
in May 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court restored the
right of all public employees (including teachers) to
bargain collectively with employers. In contrast, MSTA
fought against collective bargaining for years and filed
a brief last year urging the Supreme Court to deny teachers
a voice in the collective bargaining process.
MSTA would
still prefer that school employee bargaining rights
go away and, to that end, they drafted and supported
Senate Bill 1158 (Rob Mayer) and House Bill 2059 (Kevin
Wilson). Both bills would have denied all Missouri teachers
the opportunity to select a bargaining representative
of their choosing through a free and uncoerced election.
Missouri NEA leaders, staff and members stepped up and
lobbied strenuously to defeat those bills. H.B. 2059
managed to squeak through the House, but was stopped
in the Senate Education Committee without enough support
to gain passage.
H.B. 2059
discriminates against teachers by treating them unfairly,
denying them their right to freely elect a bargaining
representative and restricting their bargaining rights
in ways imposed on no other public or private employees.
The bill is also impractical and unworkable and will
disrupt successful relationships in many of our largest
school districts.
An effective
bargaining process must have a unified employee voice.
Piecing a bargaining team together from various groups
builds a communications gap into the process and leaves
teachers scrambling for a cohesive voice. The bill would
force teachers to form an unelected representative council,
an extra layer of bureaucracy, which would make reaching
agreement difficult. Of the 35 states where teachers
bargain collectively, no state mandates a process similar
to the one proposed in MSTA’s bills. The bargaining
model that has proven effective over time in state after
state is the exclusive representation model.
Missouri
NEA believes that H.B. 2030 (Jenee` Lowe) and S.B. 1115
(Joan Bray) would treat all employees affected by the
court decision fairly. H.B. 2030 and S.B. 1115 were
built on consensus among public employee groups, including
teachers. Missouri NEA believes every child has the
basic right to attend a great public school, and nothing
should dilute the voice of teachers in how that is accomplished.
MNEA needs strong member involvement in the 2008 election
cycle to elect more pro-public education legislators
who will support adequate funding for public education
and respect the constitutional bargaining rights of
all public education employees.
STATE
BOARD OF MEDIATION APPOINTMENT
Shortly before the end of the session, Gov. Matt Blunt
appointed Rep. Jim Avery to be the chair of the State
Board of Mediation. The State Board of Mediation is
the state entity that oversees public sector collective
bargaining in Missouri. The board conducts representation
elections and serves as the appellate body for disputes
of bargaining unit determination for employees currently
covered under the public sector bargaining law. Education
support personnel are currently covered under the public
sector bargaining law, while teachers are specifically
excluded.
Rep. Avery’s
appointment received the “advice and consent”
of the Missouri Senate. Rep. Avery’s appointment
will help fill a void in state support for public sector
bargaining. The fiscal year 2009 budget also includes
funding for the State Board of Mediation. Rep. Avery’s
appointment has the support of MNEA and many other groups
within the public sector labor community, and is seen
as a positive step in supporting fair implementation
of the public sector labor law.
TAX
CREDIT VOUCHERS
MNEA opposed the out-of-state extreme agenda to impose
tax-credit vouchers, also known as “charitable
scholarships.” House Bill 1886 (Dwight Scharnhorst)
and Senate Bill 993 (Jason Crowell) would have created
a tax credit for donations to private scholarship funds
providing payments for disabled students to attend private
or religious schools or out-of-district public schools.
MNEA opposed both bills. The proposal was defeated on
the House floor when the House debated and then rejected
similar language in H.B. 2040 (Rod Jetton) following
strong lobbying efforts by MNEA members and other public
education supporters.
STATEWIDE
SALARY SCHEDULE
House Bill 2040 (Rod Jetton), Senate Bill 1092 (Kevin
Engler) and S.B. 1152 (Jason Crowell) would have created
a state aid payment to support a statewide salary schedule.
The bills amount to a second-funding formula—one
that rewards districts with low salaries— rather
than targeting state aid to districts based on students
and their identified needs under the current formula.
None of the bills containing this language were passed.
Missouri
NEA asks the state to establish fair, adequate and sustainable
taxes, invest adequate state revenue in public schools,
protect local school revenues and support employee rights
through collective bargaining. The Association recognizes
that Missouri's low national ranking on teachers’
salaries is a symptom of inadequate school funding and
the lack of a good bargaining law for school employees.
Salaries and working conditions for all education employees
should be bargained locally to best meet the needs of
each district, rather than through a one-size-fits-all
state mandate. Local negotiation of salaries and working
conditions is the best way to create great public schools
for every child.
ABCTE
Senate Bill 1066 (Luann Ridgeway) was passed and signed
into law this session. The bill requires the State Board
of Education to certify teachers passing the test established
by the American Board for the Certification of Teacher
Excellence. Missouri NEA opposed the bill as a further
weakening of teaching standards.
After the
Senate amended the bill, Sen. Ridgeway agreed to seek
to incorporate several safeguards to the bill in the
House, but the improvements were not made. The agreement
called for requiring successful teaching evaluations
each year to maintain the certificate, using a state-approved
district mentoring program in preference to an ABCTE
mentoring program and requiring all ABCTE certified
teachers to pass the Praxis II exam on pedagogy to maintain
their certificate.
Missouri
NEA remains concerned that the bill would grant a full
professional certificate to an ABCTE teacher, rather
than the existing alternative certificate which allows
a teacher to be employed on a renewable basis in an
employing district upon maintaining successful teaching
evaluations and leading to a professional certificate
after passing the Praxis test and demonstrating teaching
competencies. The state board should retain authority
to supervise and revise any teaching certification.
Missouri NEA continues to recommend that all alternatively
certified teachers should have to pass the Praxis exam
and complete a course of study that covers all key teaching
competencies before being given a full professional
teaching certificate.
TEACHING
STANDARDS
Missouri NEA supports establishing state teaching standards,
so that state policy is clear on what teachers are supposed
to know and be able to do, how those standards will
be assessed and how mentoring, beginning teacher assistance
programs and other professional development will help
teachers meet those teaching standards. Senate Bill
1273 (Yvonne Wilson) and House Bill 2318 (Sara Lampe)
would have enacted teaching standards. The legislative
leaders chose to diminish teaching standards by passing
S.B. 1066, the ABCTE legislation, while the teaching
standards bills did not receive a committee hearing.
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
An amendment offered by Sen. Maida Coleman and enacted
in Senate Bill 1066 provides that the commissioner of
education must get the approval of the Joint Committee
on Education for the expenditures of the $15 million
allocated annually to address statewide areas of critical
need. The State Board of Education’s objections
to this oversight brought additional attention at a
critical time when the Senate was also looking to cut
the state budget by about $100 million. The professional
development funding ended up being reduced in H.B. 2002
(Allen Icet) from $20 million to $15 million for the
next budget year.
CENTRAL
INFORMATION REPOSITORY/ADMINISTRATOR COMPENSATION REPORTING
House Bill 2489 (Doug Funderburk) would have required
school districts to report the total compensation package
of each school administrator to the Department of Elementary
and Secondary Education and to post it on the department’s
Web site. The language was amended into many education
bills, but did not pass in any bill.
MNEA supported
an expansion of school accountability through the creation
of a central information repository within DESE that
would provide Web access to board policies, salary schedules
and other compensation information and school budgets
for every district in the state. The language was amended
into House Committee Substitute for H.B.s 2281, 2489
& 2537 in the House committee, but did not pass.
“SCARLET LETTER” EMPLOYEE REFERENCES
House Bill 1314 (Jane Cunningham) would have revised
several provisions affecting school employees, including
a provision to grant civil immunity on job references.
The bill passed the House but did not make it through
the Senate. Missouri NEA opposed the bill. The bill
requires districts to maintain data even on unsubstantiated
reports of employee sexual misconduct and require districts
to report this data to other districts upon request
if the employee waives the right to keep such information
confidential. Failure to waive such rights will automatically
serve as a “red flag” to a potential employer,
even if the information is related to a false allegation
or wrongful termination. This “guilty until proven
innocent” presumption will be profoundly unfair
to education employees.
Senate Bill
713 (Michael Gibbons) would have granted civil immunity
on education employee job references. The bill passed
the Senate but did make it through the House.
IMMIGRATION
AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Gov. Matt Blunt threatened a Special Session if the
legislature did not pass additional laws regarding immigration.
House bill 1549 (Bob Onder) was enacted. The bill contains
several provisions relating to undocumented aliens.
However, the final version does not contain the earlier
provision to ban all undocumented aliens from attending
public institutions of higher education. Missouri NEA
opposed this provision and views its exclusion from
the final bill as an improvement. The Association believes
that denial of state education services is not a substitute
for comprehensive immigration policy reform at the federal
level.
CHARTER
SCHOOLS
Senate Bill 1078 (Scott Rupp) and House Bill 2111 (Scott
Muschany) would have made several changes regarding
charter school laws. Provisions of concern included
expansion of the regions in which charter schools may
be operated, while positive changes included specific
standards for conduct on the part of charter school
sponsors and a mandate that at least 90 percent of sponsor
funding actually be used for the work of sponsoring
charter schools. Neither bill passed. House Bill 2002
(Allen Icet) does include new funding for an evaluation
of charter school performance as mandated in existing
state law.
BUDGET
AND REVENUES
The legislature passed House Bills 2002 and 2003 (Allen
Icet), the K-12 and higher education budget bills. State
revenues appear to be declining, in part due to economic
slowdown and in part due to implementation of recent
tax cuts and additional tax credits passed each session.
Those revenue trends, combined with spending held up
this year due to state fund balance’s promise
to create much greater budget difficulty for the fiscal
year 2010 and F.Y. 2011 budgets. MNEA supports progressive
tax reform to make Missouri’s taxes more fair
for taxpayers while also increasing state revenues to
maintain adequate funding for public schools and other
vital services.
The state
also faces a looming crisis in funding for roads and
bridges, and the construction industry is expected to
seek additional revenues from a state sales tax. This
proposal would not only make Missouri's taxes more unfair,
but would divert a traditional funding source for public
schools, higher education and other vital services over
to transportation expenditures, which have traditionally
been funded by dedicated taxes, such as the motor fuel
tax.
PROPERTY
TAX ROLLBACKS
Senate Bill 711 (Michael Gibbons) was enacted on the
last day of session. The bill seeks to force school
districts and other local governments to roll their
tax rate back, upon reassessment, against the current
tax rate, even if the district has previously approved
a higher tax rate that is often called a “tax
rate ceiling.” The change will limit growth in
local revenues when reassessment causes significant
increases in property values.
House Joint
Resolution 43 (Charles Portwood) would have put similar
rollback requirements into Missouri’s Constitution.
The HJR passed the House but did not make it through
the Senate. Missouri NEA believes that such constitutional
changes are unneeded, since the issue can be addressed
by legislation.
Local school
property taxes are the largest single source of funding
for Missouri’s public schools, and any proposal
that affects the setting of tax rates and the collection
of property taxes will have a significant impact on
public schools. The reassessment process is a crude
approximation to determining the true property value
of each property which generally increases incrementally
every year, just like the cost to educate a child. Missouri
NEA worked to ensure that the property tax legislation
will allow school districts to maintain adequate and
stable revenues from property taxes.
TABOR
House Joint Resolution 70 (Allen Icet) would have proposed
a constitutional spending limit similar to the Colorado
provision known as “TABOR,” or the so-called
“Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” The HJR passed
the House but did not make it through the Senate. This
proposal would limit annual growth in state appropriations
to a cost-of-living adjustment factor plus a population
growth factor. The HJR even includes requirements for
imposing further tax cuts if the spending limits are
operational. Missouri NEA strongly opposes HJR 70 and
TABOR. This measure will permanently diminish the state’s
capacity to provide appropriate levels of public service
and will ultimately make the state a less desirable
place to live and reduce the state’s ability to
attract desirable employers.
TAX
CUTS FOR CORPORATIONS AND THE WEALTHY
House Bill 1340 (Scott Muschany) would have allowed
full deductibility of federal income tax on state income
tax returns for both corporations and individuals. H.B.
1551 (Bryan Stevenson) would have eliminated the corporate
income tax. These bills would have significantly harmed
the fairness and adequacy of the state taxes that support
public schools and other vital services.
Both bills
were passed by the House as a part of H.B. 1644 (Bob
Onder), but the bill did not make it through the Senate.
MNEA strongly opposes these unfair tax changes that
would undermine the revenue that supports public education
and healthcare services Missourians need. Missouri NEA
believes the taxes that support great investments, such
as our public schools, should be fair, adequate and
sustainable.
LEGISLATIVE
ACCOUNTABILITY DODGE
House Joint Resolution 41 (Jane Cunningham) would have
prohibited a state court from instructing or ordering
the state legislature or any local government to levy
or increase taxes. The amendment would also prohibit
any Missouri court from instructing or ordering the
state or any local government on how to spend, allocate
or budget fiscal resources. HJR 41 passed the House
but did not make it through the Senate.
Missouri
NEA strongly opposed HJR 41. The HJR is an obvious attempt
to avoid accountability for the failure to meet the
constitutional demand to adequately and equitably fund
public education. HJR 41 would undermine the fundamental
balance of governmental powers and leave the people
of Missouri with no legal recourse to hold the legislature
accountable for failure to live up to its constitutional
obligations.
VOTER
ID RESTRICTIONS
The House hastily revived the dormant House Joint Resolution
48 (Stanley Cox) in response to a U.S. Supreme Court
ruling handed down recently regarding the permissibility
of voter ID restrictions. However, the HJR did not make
it through the Senate. The HJR would have required any
person seeking to vote in a public election provide
election officials with a driver’s license or
other government-issued photo identification. Missouri
NEA believes voting is a constitutional right that should
not be restricted by unnecessary voter photo identification
requirements or other additional barriers to the voting
franchise.
The Missouri
Supreme Court struck down the photo voter identification
requirements enacted in Senate Bill 1019 (2006) as an
unconstitutional restriction on voter access and found
that this measure would have disproportionately suppressed
voter turn out of the poor, minority and elderly voters.
MNEA opposes any attempt to enact further voter ID restrictions
or other measures that would have the effect of suppressing
voter turn out among the most vulnerable of our citizens.
CAMPAIGN
FINANCE
Senate Bill 1038 (Charlie Shields) was enacted and will
eliminate campaign contribution limits for state legislative
and statewide elective offices in Missouri. The bill
will not affect the 2008 primary races but will be in
effect for the 2008 general election. Billionaire Rex
Sinquefield has already demonstrated his intention to
flaunt the spirit of Missouri’s campaign limits
by creating hundreds of separate committees, each authorized
to give the maximum amount and all giving that funding
to the same set of candidates. S.B. 1038 will allow
direct expenditure of large sums from wealthy donors
without resorting to such trickery. For supporters of
public education to compete effectively in this new
election finance reality, grass roots action will be
needed by all MNEA members to overcome the torrent of
money that will likely flow to candidates who support
Sinquefield’s extreme agenda.
PROTECTING
MISSOURI’S FAIR AND IMPARTIAL COURTS
House Joint Resolution 49 (Stanley Cox) would have increased
the number of governor-appointed members of the Appellate
Judicial Commission from three to five, while HJR 52
(Jim Lembke) would have abolished the nonpartisan commission
entirely and establish a partisan process for selecting
appellate judges. HJR 52 never made it to the House
floor, and HJR 49 was defeated in a House floor vote.
MNEA opposed both joint resolutions and urged the General
Assembly to refrain from any changes in the Missouri
Non-Partisan Court Plan.
The Missouri
Nonpartisan Court Plan is essential for the state to
select qualified judges in a way that limits partisan
politics in the selection process. This non-partisan
plan is so effective that a majority of states have
adopted the “Missouri Plan.” Fair and impartial
courts are vital to democracy and the preservation of
our rights, including the fundamental right of access
to a great public school.
STANDARDS
FOR PETITION CIRCULATORS
House Bill 1763 (Mike Parson) would have enacted additional
standards for petition circulators. The bill passed
the House but did not make it through the Senate. The
bill prohibits paying signature gatherers by the signature,
a practice that has been shown to lead to fraudulent
practices. The bill also requires signature collectors
to be Missouri residents, requires signature gatherers
to register prior to collecting signatures, prohibits
any person convicted of forgery from collecting signatures
and increases penalties for signing false names on petitions.
Missouri
NEA supports the effort of H.B. 1763 and similar bills
to reduce fraud in the signature-gathering process for
initiative petitions. These efforts will help make sure
that the initiative process is truly reflective of issues
of concern to Missourians and not merely issues of concern
to well-heeled, out-of-state interest groups willing
to spend millions of dollars and engage in questionable
or fraudulent practices to get an issue on the ballot
in Missouri.
PSRS
SALARY INCREASE CAP
Senate Bill 994 (Jason Crowell) would have raised the
cap on annual increases in final average salary used
for calculating Public School Retirement System benefits
from 10 percent to 20 percent, but the bill did not
pass. This bill would have undone the lower cap enacted
in 2007. MNEA opposed the lower cap that was enacted
in 2007 and supported Sen. Crowell’s legislation
to reverse that unnecessary cap on PSRS pensions.
PSRS
COLA INCREASE
Senate Bill 1042 (Ryan McKenna) and House Bill 1902
(Danie Moore) would have granted additional retirement
benefits to certain current Public School Retirement
System retirees affected by the cost-of-living cap and
would have required increased contributions by active
members to fund the added benefit. Neither bill passed.
Balancing the concerns and needs of retirees and active
PSRS employees is a difficult challenge. Missouri NEA
supports repeal of the COLA adjustment cap when it is
financially feasible, but is concerned that any new
retirement benefit increase at this time will postpone
the restoration of financial stability of the PSRS system,
given the continuing increases in contribution rates
needed to meet the system’s obligations.
SUBSTANTIVE
DUE PROCESS
Legislation to establish substantive due process for
tenured teachers was filed as Senate Bill 1060 (Kevin
Engler). The bill did not pass. Missouri NEA requested
the legislation and strongly supports the bill. Substantive
due process takes the politics out of the tenure process
by allowing either a teacher or school board to ask
for a preliminary hearing by an impartial hearing officer
on a teacher’s status, rather than a politically-charged
hearing before the school board.
“MERIT”
AND DIFFERENTIAL PAY
MNEA opposes mandatory merit pay and repeal of the salary
schedule law. Merit pay leads to perceived subjectivity
of the compensation process. Merit pay represents a
narrow focus on student test scores. This focus sacrifices
the supportive environment of teacher mentoring and
collaboration and creates stronger incentives to teach
to standardized tests. Senate Bill 833 (Matt Bartle)
would have authorized differential pay for math and
science teachers, even in contradiction of a collective
bargaining agreement. Any alternative employee compensation
features, such as performance or differential pay, should
be bargained locally and should only be adopted with
the approval of the affected employees.
“INTELLECTUAL
DIVERSITY” MANDATE
House Bill 1315 (Jane Cunningham) would have created
a state mandate to promote “intellectual diversity.”
The bill was heard in House committee, but was never
voted on and did not pass. Missouri NEA opposed this
additional layer of bureaucracy and unneeded intrusion
on local control of our public higher education institutions.
These mandates do not serve an academic purpose; rather,
they serve a political agenda to promote controversy
at all costs and the politicization of educational programs.
This undermines an institution’s pursuit of excellence
and, instead, promotes controversy and politics in the
hiring process.
EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
MNEA supports statewide universal access to quality
pre-kindergarten instructional programs for all children.
Senate Bill 726 (Charlie Shields) would have established
a quality rating system for early child care programs.
MNEA supported the bill as a first step to improve the
quality of early childhood education programs. The bill
passed the Senate, but did not make it through the House.
S.B. 776
(Jolie Justus) and House Bill 2264 (Jeff Grisamore)
would have increased eligibility for child care subsidy
benefits for the working poor. The bills raised the
eligibility cap to 185 percent of federal poverty level.
Missouri NEA supported these efforts to improve access
to quality early childhood education, but neither bill
passed.
SCHOOL
SAFETY/SENATE “OMNIBUS” EDUCATION BILL
House Bill 1722 (Maynard Wallace) would have extended
employee immunity to all school board policies, not
just the discipline policy. The bill also broadened
the reporting of acts of school violence under the Safe
Schools Act, allows school boards to commission certified
law enforcement officers for local violations and certain
crimes committed on school premises, at school activities
or on buses and makes many other changes related to
school safety. Missouri NEA generally supported the
provisions in the bill, but the bill did not pass. In
the Senate, the bill was loaded up with amendments in
the Senate Education Committee and became the “omnibus”
education bill for 2008 on the Senate side but was never
brought to a final vote and died on the next to last
day of session.
MANDATORY
TESTING FOR VETERAN TEACHERS
House Bill 1476 (Jane Cunningham) would have required
certificated teachers to submit documentation to the
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education every
five years showing adequate scores on certain academic
assessments. The bill did not pass. Missouri NEA opposes
mandatory state testing of veteran teachers. This is
an unneeded, bureaucratic mandate that will distract
from Missouri’s performance-based-teaching evaluation
process, which is administered at the local level.
ATTACKS
ON UNIONS
House Bill 1477 (Jane Cunningham) would have specifically
imposed additional restrictions on the collection of
political action contributions by teacher organizations.
The bill did not pass. Missouri NEA opposed this bill
as another unneeded and bureaucratic intrusion on education
employee unions.
A+
SCHOOLS
House Bill 2191 (Jamilah Nasheed) was passed on the
last day of session. The bill makes several changes
to A+ Schools. The bill allows an unaccredited school
district to participate in the A+ Schools Program, provided
it meets all other requirements. The bill also allows
A+ Schools Program reimbursements to be used at private
technical schools, such as Ranken Tech. The bill extends
funding for the Kids’ Chance Scholarship Fund
from 2008 to 2018 and allows accrued interest to be
used to fund the scholarships.
AUTISM
COMMISSION
Senate Bill 768 (Scott Rupp) was passed. The bill will
establish the Missouri Autism Commission. The commission
will study a broad range of issues affecting children
and adults with autism, including education issues.
AUDITOR
BOND FEES
Senate Bill 944 (Kevin Engler) caps the fees charged
of school districts and other taxing entities for certifying
bonds. This bill was passed into law and will help schools
save money on school bonds by reducing state fees.
MOHELA
Senate Bill 967 (Robert Mayer) allows the Missouri Higher
Education Loan Authority to originate up to 10 percent
of primary student loans for Missouri students. The
bill passed both chambers and became law.
SCHOOL
BUILDINGS
Senate Bill 1170 (Robert Mayer) was passed into law
and enacts the Rebuild Missouri Schools Act. The program
will offer no-interest loans to school districts to
rebuild schools damaged by disaster. The bill also extends
the allowed length for lease purchases to 25 years.
S.B. 839 (Kevin Engler) was also enacted. S.B. 839 allows
certain districts, including Kingston, to buy trailers
with operating funds without state aid penalty.
TEXTBOOKS
House Bill 2048 (Jake Zimmerman) will promote textbook
price “transparency” by forcing publishers
to inform faculty and students as to the actual cost
of textbooks at the time the faculty selects textbooks
for an upcoming course. The bill was passed into law.
UNIVERSITY
OF MISSOURI STUDENT CURATOR
The legislature approved Senate Bill 873 (Chuck Graham).
The bill will create a voting student curator on the
University of Missouri Board of Curators if Missouri
loses a congressional district during reapportionment
in 2010.
STATE
SCHOOLS NAME CHANGE
House Bill 1807 (Stanley Cox) passed into law and changes
the name of the Missouri Schools for the Severely Handicapped
to the Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled.
NORTHWEST
MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
House Bill 1368 (Mike Thomson) was passed into law and
will revise the selection criteria for members of the
Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents.
COMMUNITY
COLLEGES
House Bill 1869 (Kevin Wilson) removes the obsolete
term “junior college” from law and replaces
it with the current term “community college.”
The bill was passed into law.
FOR
MORE INFO. . .
More information on MNEA’s position and activity
on bills of interest can be found in the 2008 MNEA Legislative
Updates at: http://www.mnea.org/publications/legislative/index.htm.
Supporting
detail about a specific bill can be found on the official
Missouri General Assembly Web site at: http://www.house.mo.gov/billcentral.aspx.Type
the bill number (example: HB1000) or sponsor name in
the “search” box to find a link to the bill.
This link will take you to a “home page”
for the bill that provides bill text, bill summaries,
fiscal notes and information on legislative action on
the bill.
WHAT’S
NEXT?
It is vital that public educators continue to oppose
extreme attacks on education and the public sector.
MNEA members must step up and lead by getting involved
and active in the 2008 election. MNEA must support legislators
and candidates who are willing to support children,
adequately fund public schools and respect education
employee rights. Only in this way will the state be
less vulnerable to the extreme and unworkable proposals
of the opponents of public education. MNEA must support
pro-education candidates with time and money to help
elect a legislature that will lead Missouri forward
to workable solutions for prosperity, access and possibility.
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