The first major piece of legislation offered by Majority Leader Tim Jones, R-Eureka, this year, the "Parent Empowerment and Choice Act," was read for the second time Thursday.
The bill is co-sponsored by seven legislators, including one, Speaker Pro Tem Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, from this corner of the state.
Other co-sponsors are Scott Dieckhaus, R-Washington; Cole McNary, R-Chesterfield; Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City; Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff; Andrew Koenig, R-Winchester; and Gary Cross, R-Lee's Summit.
Jones' bill makes no bones about the concept of using taxpayer money to send children to private schools. In fact, the bill, which is also referred to as the "Parent Trigger Act," would allow a change by petition. If more than 50 percent of parents want change in their local schools, they would have three options, charter schools, closing schools and sending students to other schools, providing them with vouchers to attend private or parochial schools:
(1) A restart model is one in which a local educational agency converts a school or closes and reopens a school under a charter school operator, a charter management organization, or an education management organization that has been selected through a rigorous review process. A charter management organization is a nonprofit organization that operates or manages charter schools by centralizing or sharing certain functions and resources among schools. An education management organization is a for-profit or nonprofit organization that provides whole school operation services to a local educational agency. A restart model shall enroll, within the grades it services, any former student who wishes to attend the school.
(2) School closure occurs when a local educational agency closes a school and enrolls the students who attended that school in other schools within the local educational agency that are higher achieving. These other schools should be within reasonable proximity to the closed school and may include, but are not limited to, charter schools or new schools for which achievement data are not yet available. In the event no such school exists, the district shall implement the educational choice model.
(3) Educational choice occurs when a local educational agency implements a school voucher program under section 160.1204.
1. Any student of, or student who would naturally matriculate into, a school triggered for the educational choice reform option shall have the option to receive a monetary voucher to cover the cost of attendance at any private or other public school.
2. Any student of a triggered school wishing to attend a private school shall qualify for an annual scholarship in an amount equal to the lessor of:
(1) Seventy-five percent of the triggered school's annual cost per pupil, including both operational and capital facility costs; or
(2) Seventy-five percent of the dollar amount the resident school district would have received to serve and educate the eligible student from state and local sources had the student enrolled there.
3. Any student of a triggered school wishing to attend a different public school shall qualify for any public school with no additional fee.
4. Funds available to a student are calculated using an average of the last three budget years and recalculated each year.
5. Funds are made available to each student until the earlier of completion of his or her high school degree or his or her twenty-first birthday.
6. Students receiving voucher moneys are to be counted in the enrollment figures of their local educational agencies for the purposes of calculating future voucher moneys.
7. Students receiving voucher moneys more than the cost of tuition in a private school are given the opportunity to store that money in an educational savings account to be used for any additionally encumbered educational expenses. Qualifying expenses include but are not limited to tutoring, lessons, educational camps, school materials, textbooks, and educational software.
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