Policy Update: Missouri: A Fragile Deal

Vital Statistics
523	Public school districts
2,120	Public schools
910,000	K-12 enrollment
19.1%	Minority students
18%	Children in poverty
15.2%	Students with disabilities
$4.6 billion	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

The funding changes will offset most, but not all, of the state desegregation funding that the Kansas City and St. Louis systems currently receive. The legislation sets a March 15 deadline for settlements releasing the state from further desegregation spending.

Federal judges issued desegregation orders to the Kansas City schools in 1975 and the St. Louis schools in 1980. The state has spent more than $3 billion on efforts to desegregate those districts since the 1980s.

"This was the most expensive desegregation effort in the history of the nation. We wasted millions of dollars," Democratic Sen. Tom House, who sponsored the new legislation, contends. "Unelectable, unaccountable federal judges have no business running school districts. They are simply not qualified."

The plan is dependent on the federal courts, which can release the state from having to pay for desegregation, says Gerri Ogle, the coordinator of school administrative services for the state education department. The settlements are expected to come within the year.

Moreover, many of the most important provisions are also contingent on action by St. Louis voters. Aid for Kansas City, the redistribution of state funds, and a voluntary transfer program will not go into effect unless St. Louis voters agree before March 15 to a half-cent sales tax increase or an 85-cent property tax on every $100 of assessed value.

Even if taxes are increased, the 46,000-student St. Louis district will still lose about $10 million in annual state funding. The district's annual budget is about $385 million.

Other measures in the law, which went into effect in August, include overhauling the St. Louis school board, continuing the current transfer program, and authorizing charter schools in St. Louis and Kansas City. The law also gives the state board the power to temporarily take over any failing districts, with "reconstitution" of schools as an option.

The law eliminates tenure for principals in St. Louis, the only district in Missouri to allow such job protections. And it says teachers there cannot obtain tenure until their fifth year; tenure used to be awarded after three years.

Under the city's student-transfer program, 12,349 black students from St. Louis are bused to the white suburbs this year, while 1,360 white students attend city magnet schools. The law states that a new nonprofit corporation will run the program. After six years, participating districts will hold referendums on whether to continue in the program.

The law also authorizes K-12 charter schools in Kansas City and St. Louis. The publicly funded but largely independent schools can be sponsored by the district school boards or by colleges or universities. Up to 5 percent of the districts' schools may be converted to charter status.

In addition, the legislators agreed to allow the state to take temporary control of any districts in the state that lose their state accreditation and fail to regain the status. The Kansas City district would have two years from the time it was deemed unaccredited to improve. The St. Louis district would be taken over immediately.

"If you know you've created a really bad situation where you have incompetent staff ... a fresh start is not always bad," said Paula M. Short, who oversees the University of Missouri Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program. "But you need to know ... the source of the problem."

In other matters, lawmakers approved the creation of an Early Childhood Education Fund to finance public preschool and child-care programs with money from admission fees paid by patrons of riverboat gambling.

Eighty percent of the funding will be allocated to the state education department to craft programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. The remaining 20 percent will be allotted to the department of social services to increase reimbursements for day-care facilities that care for low-income children. The legislature is expected to allocate $21 million for the fund.

"When kids enter kindergarten, the gap [in learning] is really quite large," says Brent Ghan, the director of public affairs for the Missouri School Boards Association. "This is significant to have ... programs established across the state."