EDUCATION MEASURE LIKELY TO PASS SENATE

JEFFERSON CITY -- Despite opposition from school superintendents across Southeast Missouri, it appears that a school finance bill intended to make revisions in Senate Bill 380 from last year is headed for passage in the Senate.

"Everyone who has contacted me -- some in urgent terms -- has opposed it," said state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, waving a stack of faxes outside his third-floor capitol office.

Said Kinder: "I have major problems with it, but my big problem is I don't have any more than six or eight votes against it right now. I have conferred with my colleagues, Danny Staples and Jerry Howard, about how it will hurt Southeast Missouri. At this point I'm not sure if it hurts other areas."

Staples, D-Eminence, said Friday he had not had a chance to study the bill.

"Most of the superintendents we have talked to are concerned about it," Staples said. "The version we have to consider passed the House by a large margin. Almost everyone over there seemed to think this is the best thing we can do, but I'm not sure about that."

The measure, Senate Bill 676, is sponsored by Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, chairman of the Senate education panel. Once it got to the House, a committee substitute drafted by Rep. Annette Morgan, D-Kansas City, chairman of the education committee in the House, and Rep. Joe Maxwell, D-Mexico, was proposed.

Last Monday the substitute was passed by a vote of 128 to 26. Since the bill was changed, Caskey has the option of sending it to a conference committee to resolve differences or accepting the bill as is.

Kinder said he understands that Caskey is planning to accept the House version. If that's the case, no amendments can be added with debate and a straight vote.

"It does appear to have enough votes to pass," said Kinder.

Several superintendents, in letters about the issue to Kinder and other senators, have encouraged him to wage a filibuster to force revisions or kill the bill.

"A filibuster is an option, but it is an option I am not considering at this time," said Kinder Friday. "But that could change."

Among the concerns raised by Southeast Missouri superintendents are that the revised 676 will severely curtail local control of schools; allocate most of the new money from SB-380 to teacher salaries and leave very little for education; severely penalize districts that use lease purchases for buildings, equipment and buses; and sharply reduce the amount of new money many districts were expecting to receive under last year's school bill.

SB-380 was promoted as a way of bringing more equity in school funding, but several superintendents contend 676 is a move back toward inequity, with richer school districts receiving more than their share of state funds.

When the bill was voted on last Monday, both Cape Girardeau County representatives, Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, and David Schwab, R-Jackson, voted for the measure. The bill was also supported by Reps. Jim Graham, R-Fredericktown, and Herb Fallert, D-Ste. Genevieve.

Only one House member south of Cape Girardeau -- Rep. Gene Copeland, D-New Madrid -- voted for the bill. The others were among the 26 in opposition.

Reps. Dennis Ziegenhorn of Sikeston, Marilyn Williams of Dudley, Larry Thomason of Kennett, and Don Prost of Caruthersville were four of the five Democrats in the House who voted against the bill.

They, along with Republican Reps. Mark Richardson and Bill Foster from Poplar Bluff, said they voted no because it would be devastating to area school districts.

"Most of the people who voted against it did so because of the reduction in the funding rate," said Rep. Thomason.

In particular, legislators opposed to the bill were incensed by a plan to lower the assessment equalization ratio from one-third as outlined in SB-380, to 31.56.

"The people that win are the underassessed districts, and the Bootheel, in general, is assessed at an appropriate level. So our schools get socked with this lower equalization ratio," said Thomason.

Kasten said she voted for the bill because "that's the best we can do. I know many schools in our area are upset, and that is understandable. Many people worked on this for months and months so as not to jeopardize school districts and allow the formula that was set up to continue to be as equitable as possible.

"It is not as beneficial to us as I wish it were, but it is the best compromise possible at this time."

Thomason said one reason the bill passed the House easily is because proponents warned if the funding in 380 was not corrected, the school finance system would become bankrupt.

Thomason believes the point was over-exaggerated. "They did a real good job making out like there was a crisis, but there wasn't," he said. "The crisis was that some rich school districts could not stand to lose their money from the state. They never told anyone that the school districts getting hit hard were the people who were supposed to get hit hard due to Judge (Byron) Kinder's ruling last year."

Kinder said the problems with SB-676 are an example of what happens when "flawed legislation" like SB-380 is passed. "We are doing a cleanup bill this year, which is laying the groundwork for a cleanup bill next year, and probably laying the groundwork for more litigation as well."