Bill would let students enroll in any district within 30 miles

Legislation in the Missouri House would establish open enrollment in school districts.

Supporters say it would eliminate student residency issues that have plagued school districts and better serve students.

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, Mo., said the legislation would give families a choice on where to send their children to school and provide an option for families to move their children to better-performing schools.

"I just happen to believe that one size does not fit all and that we can keep our customers a whole lot happier if we let them determine what public school meets the needs of their kids," Cunningham said.

Students would be able to enroll in any school district within 30 miles of their home district, provided there was available classroom space.

School districts would have to adopt policies to define class size for open-enrollment purposes using the state's minimum teacher-pupil ratio.

A host district that didn't have sufficient classroom space to accommodate the out-of-district students would have to develop a selection process that would include preferences for brothers and sisters of students already attending that district.

The host district would receive state aid for open-enrollment students. The amount of state aid would be calculated at the per-pupil amount of the home or host district, whichever is higher.

More than 20 states have some type of open enrollment, Cunningham said.

Most education groups in Missouri have opposed the bill.

Susan Goldammer, senior director of school laws for the Missouri School Boards' Association, said her group opposes the bill largely because it would allow parents to send their children to school districts to which they don't pay property taxes.

The bill would allow host districts to get state aid for those out-of-district students, but those districts wouldn't be receiving any property tax money from those families, she said.

"Economically, it could prove to be a hardship for schools that have tried very hard to keep class sizes down," Goldammer said.

But some Southeast Missouri school superintendents believe some form of open enrollment law should be considered as a way to eliminate out-of-district student residency issues.

Stephen Cookson, superintendent of the Naylor school system, testified at a House hearing in support of the open-enrollment bill. The legislation, he said, would provide controlled, open enrollment. Cookson believes most families would still send their children to school in the district they live in.

That's been the case in Arkansas which has had open enrollment for several years, he said.

Altenburg superintendent Richard Hoffman favors some type of open enrollment to make it convenient for families of children who live closer to a school in a neighboring district than their own school.

"I think open enrollment makes good sense to allow a child to stay close to home in the elementary grades," he said.

Scott City School District superintendent Diann Bradshaw-Ulmer is undecided about Cunningham's bill.

Whether the bill passes or not, she said lawmakers need to address school district boundary issues. The boundaries, set up more than 50 years ago in many cases, need to be studied and possibly revised, she said.

Allowing students to attend a school within 30 miles of their homes would be convenient because of modern roads and students' access to transportation, Bradshaw-Ulmer said.

"These days almost every high school student will have a car," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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