LEGISLATORS, EDUCATORS DISCUSS ISSUES

Five area state legislators met with about 100 educators from the Southeast District of the Missouri State Teachers Association Saturday to discuss issues affecting education in the 1994 session.

Much of the discussion focused on collective bargaining for teachers, which is opposed by MSTA, and a statewide petition drive known as Hancock II, which would require that all future tax increases be put to a vote of the people.

Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said the collective bargaining bill was passed out of the labor and industrial relations committee in the Senate last week on a 5-4 vote, but he predicted it would get nowhere in the full Senate.

"It's a perennial bill," said Kinder. "It was voted out of committee last year by a single vote, but went nowhere on the floor."

He said the bill has a huge fiscal note and he guessed that no more than 15 of the 34 senators supported the concept.

Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, said the issue has been discussed during her 20 years as a school board member and 12 years in the House. "I know that is the wrong way for us to go," said Kasten, who agreed with Kinder that it stood little chance of passage.

Ron Crain, associate executive director of MSTA, explained there were five different bills on collective bargaining and each provides exclusive bargaining to the majority organization. MSTA believes teachers should be allowed to join any group they wish, Crain said.

He contended that collective bargaining was one of two serious "threats" MSTA sees in the 1994 session.

The other threat is the Hancock II petition drive, which would require voter approval of most tax increases. "We must be vigilant in our opposition to this petition. We must educate the public about what this will do," said Crain.

He said the proposed constitutional amendment puts tight restrictions on the amount of revenue growth that could be received without a vote.

Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, said putting such a limitation on governing bodies "is obscene." He said legislative bodies need the ability to react to needs that require additional revenue without going to a vote on everything.

For example, Howard said had the tax provisions of Senate Bill 380 gone to a vote last year and been defeated, because of action by the courts the legislature would still have had to deal with the issue of equity in school funding.

In discussing SB-380, Crain said the provisions of the bill will help increase funding and make changes in education. "The financial future of education looks better than it has in the last few years," said Crain. He said all but one of the state's 536 school districts have approved the minimum tax levy of $2.75.

Kinder, who recently was appointed to the Senate Education Committee, contended that one problem with SB-380 is that it "limits local control and strengthens state control."

Rep. Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, who is vice chairman of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, said she is a strong supporter of giving school districts more control.

"I am in total support of local control for every aspect of our schools," said Williams. "The state has a lot of diversity and it is very important to have that local control to adjust to that diversity."

Williams said a topic before the education committee is how to keep kids in school. One idea is to raise the compulsory age for attending school from 16 to 18; another is to require youths under 18 to stay in school to have a driver's license.

Williams said she hopes an increased emphasis in vocational education will encourage some non-collegebound students to remain in school because they will see some benefit in staying.

Several bills have been introduced this year to ban or strictly limit corporal punishment in Missouri's schools. Legislators who spoke on the topic Saturday said they opposed such a ban.

Rep. James Graham, R-Fredericktown, observed, "I would rather see a little disciplinary action take place in schools at an early age than to see prisons crowded by these kids at a later age."

Kasten said she was concerned that teachers are having to deal with more social problems that take away time in the classroom. She opposes such a ban.

Said Kasten: "You need every bit of help that is available so you can do the teaching your profession calls for."

Howard expressed concern over efforts by the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, to prevent any of the $2.75 minimum levy being used for lease-purchase options or for debt service.

But Howard said since SB-380 required many schools in outstate Missouri to raise their minimum levies, it might be a while before any kind of bond issue could be passed. Such a restriction "would put our districts in a precarious position," the senator said.

There is also a move by Caskey to have a capital improvement fund established so that any bond issue money from school districts would go to that fund.

Howard promised to continue his fight and said: "The real issue is local control. We should be able to use that money at the local level as we see fit."

Kinder said he supports Howard on the issue.

All five legislators and Lloyd Smith, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, made some comments to the MSTA members before a period of questions and answers.

In his remarks, Kinder made no mention of a school choice bill he introduced in the Senate, which is a concern to many members of MSTA. The school choice issue was raised during the question period, but by that time in the program Kinder and Howard had left to honor other commitments.

Kasten fielded the question and told the group it has been discussed for years. She assured the educators that Kinder's goal was not to have an adverse impact on the public school system.

Said Kasten: "This is quite controversial, and I don't imagine many of you are in favor of it. The issue has a lot of interest and we need to keep looking at it."

Sikeston Superintendent Bob Buchanan told the gathering that public schools might support it if private school teachers had to be certified and follow the same criteria as public school teachers, and if they were required to serve special-needs students.

Crain said the fact the bill does not yet have a hearing scheduled, means school choice has little chance of going far in 1994.

One teacher said she had studied Kinder's proposal and thought it was worthy of consideration.

Kasten suggested that the group review the bill and take the opportunity to hear the senator's perspective.