Jill Carter's school accreditation bill passes Senate

By Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri Independent

The Missouri Senate sent a bill to the House Thursday that would overhaul the state’s accreditation and accountability system in order to give local school districts more control.

State Sen. Jill Carter, a Republican from Granby, has filed the bill for three consecutive years and garnered approval for public-school advocates in committee. But each year it has been passed over for other priorities when it reached the full Senate.

Skepticism from state Sen. Curtis Trent, a Republican from Springfield, slowed the bill’s passage this year and inspired a lengthy debate about accountability earlier this month.

But Monday, he applauded Carter for “helping work through the concerns that I had.”

Carter tweaked the legislation Monday to clarify sections and add an expiration date to a provision limiting the State Board of Education’s authority to classify districts.

It was approved by the Senate Thursday on a 32 to one vote, with Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman as the only opponent.

If the bill passes the House, school districts will be able to seek accreditation from national accreditation agencies in addition to the State Board of Education. The board can classify districts without outside accreditation as provisionally accredited or unaccredited only for the purpose of determining whether a charter school can open within a district’s boundaries. State law allows charters to open the area of unaccredited districts and those that have been provisionally accredited for at least three years.

Carter’s legislation also requires schools to post performance data on their websites. Previous versions of the bill specified the data would be sent to “media outlets serving the district.”

It also changes a requirement for “interim assessments” at the beginning and end of the school year to “local assessments” without specified times.

Carter believes the legislation would give school boards and parents more power over curriculum and personalize learning to a district’s needs.

“I think this is a first step in trying to mitigate a lot of the concerns that we’ve had and educators have had in our public schools,” she said Monday.

There is just under a month remaining in the current legislative session. If Carter’s bill doesn’t pass the House in coming weeks, she will have to start over in the process next year.