LEGISLATIVE REPORT: WORKING ON SB 781

The House Education Committee has been working on Senate Bill 781 this week. SB 781 is the bill known as this year's desegregation bill which Governor Carnahan is supporting. As you know, the court desegregation case has been settled in Kansas City and desegregation will end there in 1999. However, there has been no settlement in the 26-year-old St. Louis desegregation case and no one is sure what the judge in St. Louis will find acceptable. SB 781 mainly addresses the St. Louis City School District and the hope is the bill will satisfy the court and bring desegregation to end there also. As with most controversial issues, the devil is in the details.

Under current law, any savings from desegregation funding is required to be put into the Foundation Formula. The Foundation Formula is the formula in law that the State Department Elementary & Secondary Education uses to calculate the amount of state aid each individual school district receives. SB 781 makes changes to the state Foundation Formula to ensure that Kansas City and St. Louis will continue receiving the lionshare of any savings from desegregation money. The bill does this by increasing the amount of funding school districts receive for pupils who are on the free and reduced lunch program.

For example, if nothing is done, no bill is passed, and no changes are made to current law and the all the desegregation money is distributed to all schools through the current Foundation Formula Kansas City will receive approximately $8.3 million. Under SB 781, Kansas City will receive $27.7 million. St. Louis would receive approximately $9.6 million under current law and $80.8 million if SB 781 passes.

SB 781 also creates a special overlay district in St. Louis City solely for the purpose of raising property taxes by 85 cents. St. Louis City's property tax rate is currently $3.75 per $100 of assessed valuation. Under current law, to increase that tax rate requires a 2/3 majority vote. Any property taxes for schools up to $1.25 per $100 of assessed valuation can be imposed by a simple majority of voters. St. Louis has a large number of low-income people and property owners in St. Louis have defeated attempts in the past to increase their property taxes so this bill provides a way to increase property taxes with fewer votes.

Supporters of SB 781 say that the bill is absolutely necessary because St. Louis needs a significant amount of tax money to keep the schools afloat and to continue operating the voluntary transfer (busing) program. Supporters argue that without additional funding that 13,000 St. Louis City students who currently attend school in the county will be forced to return to City schools and there is not enough classroom space for them. The bill also requires that early childhood education be available throughout the district. There is some concern that this could require the St. Louis City Schools to establish state-run day care centers for three and four year olds in all the schools if Governor Carnahan's bill passes this year. This simply makes no sense to require St. Louis schools to provide these services if they are unable to adequately provide space and education to current school aged children.

SB 781 also says "No student shall be promoted to a higher grade level unless that student has a reading ability at, or above, one grade level below the student's grade level." In other words, if a 7th grader is reading at a 6th grade level he/she can be passed on to the 8th grade, so a student, BY LAW, can be and remain two-years behind under this bill. Supporters of the bill call this "progress." In every other school district in the State of Missouri, advancing a student to the next grade level is a local decision and each district sets up its own requirements for passing to the next grade level. State law currently on dictates graduation requirements.

With no court settlement in St. Louis and no guarantee that the judge will accept SB 781 as a solution, I am looking very closely at the bill. The bill does not provide any real and meaningful educational reforms in St. Louis and it only seems to maintain the status quo on funding. Unless, and until, we get a bill that stops pouring millions of tax dollars into a failing district and provides funding equity and fairness to all school districts in Missouri. I question if we should pass a new law.