Mo. Senate approves midyear school funding cut

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Missouri Senate voted Tuesday to shield more than one-quarter of Missouri's public school districts from a midyear funding shortfall.

Declining state revenue led Gov. Jay Nixon to conclude earlier this year that Missouri wouldn't have enough money to make midyear payments to districts totaling $43 million.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had intended to ensure all 523 public school districts share the shortfall burden.

But the House voted to exempt about 150 districts because they didn't benefit from an increase in state aid under the funding formula passed in 2005. The exempted districts include St. Louis and Kansas City, the state's two largest, as well as some of the largest suburban ones and a mixture of small, rural districts.

Senators maintained the House decision on the funding bill by a 32-2 vote Tuesday, while stressing it doesn't restrict how the state allocates potential future shortfalls.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said an across-the-board cut would create a greater equity problem among districts-- exactly what the 2005 funding formula is trying to fix.

"Any way we go we have to make sure we don't create a greater disparity between schools," Mayer said. "We did not want DESE to distribute it all out. That could create a problem in itself with equity."

Some lawmakers argued that all districts should face cuts instead of only a few. Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, argued that House and Senate members should have had a chance to debate a plan while reconciling differences in their versions of the budget instead of deciding on the Senate floor.

"This snuffs out any hope that burden would be shared by all," Bartle said.

Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, had argued that the state should keep a promise made five years ago not to change funding for certain districts that collect high local taxes. The bill was amended to keep those districts "harmless."

Mayer said the affected districts will still receive a funding increase for 2009, but the amount will be less than expected.

The potential for a shortfall wasn't addressed when the 2005 foundation formula law was written. It includes no direction about what the state schools agency should do if Missouri fails to provide the full amount of money called for during the seven-year period in which the formula would be phased in.

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