House bill would allow scholarships to attend private, better schools

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Legislation allowing students to receive privately funded scholarships to attend private or better-performing public schools is drawing the ire of teachers unions and other groups, who fear it could be a "backdoor" to legalizing school vouchers.

The proposal has an unusual combination of backers, including suburban Republicans and urban Democrats, and both supporters and opponents of school vouchers. They insist the legislation is not a school voucher program, but critics fear it could take money away from public schools.

"You can call it what you want to, but it is a backdoor to vouchers," said Luana Gifford, a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO and the Missouri Federation of Teachers.

The House Urban Issues Committee took no vote Wednesday on the bill co-sponsored by its chairman, Rep. Ted Hoskins, D-Berkeley, and the chairwoman of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield.

Under the bill, businesses and individuals could donate to not-for-profit groups, which would award scholarships to students to attend private or better-performing public schools.

James Buford, president of the St. Louis Urban League, said he opposes vouchers but favors this plan because the money comes from private sources. He said it would give students stuck in troubled schools an option.

"These schools are abysmally failing our kids," Buford told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To be eligible for the scholarships, students would have to be enrolled in, or have dropped out of, an unaccredited or provisionally accredited public school district. Sponsors say more than 10,000 children could receive scholarships.

Family income also could not exceed certain limits under the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. For example, students in a family of four could qualify for a scholarship so long as the family's income is less than $64,515 annually. Children with disabilities meeting certain other criteria also would be eligible for some scholarships.

Scholarship money also could help defray costs for after-school tutoring, high school equivalency programs and apprenticeship programs.

In exchange for the private contributions, the state would offer those donating scholarship money up to $40 million in tax credits to account for 85 percent of their contributions. The state would gain by paying less to school districts whose students went elsewhere.

An average scholarship would be $3,800, up to a maximum of $6,500, and the figures would be adjusted for inflation in future years.

Scholarship priority would go to students with the most need, such as children of inmates, foster children, students who were expelled and students with grade-point averages of 2.5 or lower.

Spence Jackson, a spokesman for Gov. Matt Blunt, said the governor supports the bill's concept, but Blunt has said he opposes school vouchers.

"We will work with [Rep. Cunningham] to craft a bill that we can enact," Jackson said.

Democratic critics of the bill point out that Cunningham, in applying to run the education committee, claimed to have helped raise $381,220 for fellow Republicans last election. Much of the money came from the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based political action committee All Children Matter, which supports parental school choice policies such as tuition tax credits, vouchers and charter schools.

---

Scholarship bill is HB639.

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov