Legislature will deal with student transfer issue

In her latest newsletter, Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, who served on the House Interim Education Committee that held a hearing recently at Missouri Southern State University, addresses one of the issues her committee reviewed during its series of hearings- the transfer of students from failing districts.

Members of the Joint Committee on Education recently met in the state Capitol to discuss what has been the most talked about issue in education this year – the student transfer policy.  This statute, which has been law for 20 years, allows students to transfer out of unaccredited school districts and into better-performing schools.  It became an urgent issue in June of this year when the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the transfer law in a St. Louis-based case.  That decision opened the floodgates for more than 2,600 students to leave the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens School districts.

This is an extremely complex issue that on one hand involves giving young people an opportunity for a better education, which is something we all want, but on the other hand creates numerous hardships for both the unaccredited and receiving school districts.  Consider that the Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts will lose some $35 million in funding this year because of the loss of students leaving for other districts.

Already we have seen the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ask for $6.8 million in emergency funding to help the Normandy School District get through the end of the school year.  The money would be used to cover tuition and transportation costs for about 1,100 students who transferred out of the district, as well as pay for the education of about 3,000 children remaining in Normandy schools.  As our state education commission said, “The costs are simply unsustainable for (the) sending districts.”

And as much as this law is a burden on the districts losing students, it is important to keep in mind that the receiving districts are placed in an extremely difficult position as well.  The neighboring districts that receive new students are forced to find classroom space and teachers to accommodate the influx of new students.  Given the budget constraints our schools operate under, it’s not hard to see how much of a burden a large number of new students could create.  The situation is one that is not ideal and now has legislators discussing what we can do to help.

The Joint Committee on Education’s hearing was an important step toward taking effective legislative action in 2014.  The committee received great input during its hearing that included the possibility of passing legislation next year to revoke the student transfer law entirely.  Regardless of what the committee ultimately recommends as the proper policy solution for this problem, the consensus among my legislative colleagues is that we must do something and we must do it quickly.

While this situation is a major issue right now in St. Louis, it also has the potential to impact Kansas City depending on a court ruling that is still pending in a separate but similar case to the one ruled on earlier this year in St. Louis.  And if a day comes when a school district in a rural area loses accreditation, we will certainly be in this same mess all over again if we don’t act now.  This is undoubtedly a statewide issue and one we will seek to address when we return in January to begin the legislative session.  Our goal is to give every young person in this state the opportunity to receive a high quality education that will prepare them for success as adults.  In order to accomplish that goal, we will continue to discuss and work toward a better solution for this critical issue.