House debates special fund for small schools

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Many of Missouri's smallest school districts would have to raise their local taxes in order to access a special $15 million fund for such districts under a change the House of Representatives on Tuesday made to legislation to overhaul the state's system for funding public education.

As of 10 p.m., the House had spent five hours debating the bill, with disagreements centered more on regional rather than partisan lines. The discussion was expected to continue past midnight.

Gov. Matt Blunt has threatened to call lawmakers back to the Capitol this summer if they don't send a bill to his desk before the legislative session ends on Friday. If the bill clears the House, a compromise bill would have to be negotiated with the Senate, which passed a version of the measure last month.

As approved by a House committee, the small schools fund would be available for distribution on a per-pupil basis to the 168 Missouri districts that have fewer than 350 students. However, state Rep. Brad Lager, R-Maryville, successfully amended the measure on the House floor to require those districts to have a minimum local property tax of $3.50 per $100 assessed valuation to qualify for the money.

Southeast Missouri districts with fewer than 350 students include Leopold, Zalma, Delta, Nell Holcomb, Altenburg and Kelso. Because of Lager's amendment, only Delta currently has a levy sufficient to access the small schools fund.

Since the special fund would be in addition to any new money small districts would enjoy under the revised education funding formula created in the bill, Lager said districts with low local tax rates need to ask for greater financial commitments from their patrons in order to reap the extra benefit.

"Otherwise what happens is there would be no incentive for small school districts to ever raise their levies again," Lager said.

The proposed formula in the bill would distribute state money based on student needs in a given district, replacing the existing formula that is driven by local taxes. Given the shift in the underlying principle of the proposed formula, state Rep. Joe Aull, D-Marshall, said tying the small schools fund to local tax rates seems contradictory.

"This does go against that premise a bit," Aull said.

Lawmakers easily beat back an attempt by state Rep. Terry Swinger, D-Caruthersville, to raise the small district threshold to 600 students, which would have allowed another 84 districts to leverage extra money. Swinger said those slightly larger small districts also deserve additional assistance.

The House committee version of the bill calls for an additional $940 million to be spent on public schools over seven years. The money would be phased in beginning with the 2006-2007 school year and ending with the 2012-2013 term. Lawmakers have yet to come up with a method to pay for the proposed formula.

A feature of the bill not in place under the existing funding system sparked a protracted fight between rural lawmakers and their urban and suburban counterparts. The provision at issue would allow districts in regions where wages that exceed the statewide average to draw extra state aid to compensate for higher costs. Metropolitan districts stand to benefit the most.

Rural lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to lessen the impact of wages in the formula. State Rep. Maynard Wallace, R-Thornfield, said including that factor would unfairly direct a larger share of state funding to Missouri's wealthiest districts.

"Those parts of the state where they already have more money to spend, it sends more money there," Wallace said.

State Rep. Connie Johnson, D-St. Louis, chided her colleagues for looking out strictly for the parochial interests of their own school districts and ignoring the needs of others.

"We've got to get out of that mindset that if it is not in my back yard, it doesn't concern me," Johnson said. "What I'm hearing tonight is it's every man for himself."

The bill is HB 287.

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