Open enrollment debate heats up: Local leaders voice concerns over bill after it passes in the House

Missouri’s House of Representatives passed a bill allowing public school students to transfer to nonresident districts for the fifth consecutive year.

House Bill 711, sponsored by District 52 Rep. Brad Pollitt, passed 88 to 69 on Wednesday, March 12, with 22 Republicans voting across the party line against the legislation. If it passes the Senate and is signed by the governor, it will allow up to 3% of a school district’s student population to transfer to any public school regardless of location. Additionally, districts are allowed to opt out of accepting students but do not have a choice regarding students transferring out. Districts are also allowed to deny students based on special education status if the district decides it can’t meet the student’s needs.

Local Reps. Barry Hovis (District 146), John Voss (District 147) and Bryant Wolfin (District 145) voted to approve the legislation, while District 148 and 144 Reps. David Dolan and Tony Harbison, respectively, voted in opposition.

Two similar bills, SB 215 and SB 70, have been introduced into the Senate and combined as a Senate Committee Substitute (SCS). Hovis said he supports HB 711 but doesn’t support the Senate’s version because of the lack of an option for districts.

“The version that’s in the House and the version in the Senate are kind of alike but there’s a couple main differences in there that makes me only support Brad Pollitt’s bill,” Hovis said. “At the moment, Brad’s bill still has the option in there that if a school district wants to opt out of open enrollment, where they do not take students and stuff along those lines. … That’s a local control issue and I’m good with it.

“I think the Senate version requires it now and, with all due respect to Sen. Curtis Trent over there, I just can’t support that provision where it makes it mandatory for open enrollment.”

District 27 Sen. Jamie Burger, along with many other state legislators, believes open enrollment is inevitable and supports “different forms and fashions of it.” While he acknowledged the concerns, Burger said he believes many of them are similar to those people currently have.

“I think the instances that you described are concerns that we have today without open enrollment; closure of smaller schools and smaller communities losing population,” Burger said. “I think our small schools in Southeast Missouri would probably gain enrollment from different venues, too, possibly. I think those are concerns whether we have open enrollment or not.”

Opponents of open enrollment are concerned that students leaving a school district could lead to school closures and consolidation, particularly in rural communities, program elimination, transportation issues, loss of community support and loss of resources.

According to the Missouri Retired Teachers Association (MRTA), more than 220 Missouri school districts sent letters to the Legislature in opposition to the bill in January.

“I think a lot of people need to sit back and look at the schools. If there really are problems, which there are enough because everything isn’t perfect, school choice is not going to solve a lot of this. It just won’t,” said Mark Cook, vice president of the SEMO MRTA. “If they’re having trouble, they need to talk to their teachers, they need to talk to their board, their administrators and become engaged with their local school board to see what’s going on. Look at the curriculum, and if you’re worried about it, I think you’ll find, nine times out of 10, that teachers are professionals, and the administrators are trying to do the best job they can.”

On Tuesday, March 11, school board members from around the state visited the State Capitol for the Missouri School Boards Association’s (MSBA) Advocacy Day to speak for their districts, including many who spoke to their local legislators in opposition to open enrollment.

Howard Benyon, Cape Girardeau Public Schools superintendent; Jared Ritter, Cape Girardeau Board of Education president; and Kristal Flentge, board member, were among those who visited Jefferson City to communicate with their legislators. In addition to local representatives, Burger was also part of the conversation and invited Pollitt to discuss the topic.

“There were a couple other school districts that joined us, so it was not just us,” Flentge said. “That was honestly fantastic — probably my favorite meeting of the day — just because we all got to talk about our point of view as a district, how it affects schools and hear what his thought process is of why he’s sponsoring the bill.”

Benyon expressed his concern regarding the financial aspect of the bill, explaining that if students transfer out of a school in a nonresident district to Cape Girardeau Public Schools things such as transportation and special education costs, in particular, would come from local tax appropriations paid by residents. Therefore, the family of the transferring student would not be contributing tax dollars toward their child’s education, leaving residents of the receiving district to foot the bill.

“It’s just a messy bill that should not be offered to anyone, but they want us to settle with (HB) 711 because it’s less restrictive than the Senate bill,” Benyon said. “Well, I basically told them that we’re not going to just settle when we don’t want any of it.”

Benyon encourages residents to contact their representatives and senators in opposition of HB 711 and open enrollment in general.

“I don’t know where everybody falls if this ends up passing,” Benyon said. “But I will tell you, if I were a citizen in this community, I would be calling my local legislators and letting them know, because eventually, it’s going to be coming out of their pockets. …

“Property values will go down and all of these other things (will happen). When a school district loses its identity, lots of bad things happen for that community.”