Amendment to end teacher tenure will be on November ballot

(From Secretary of State Jason Kander)

Secretary of State Jason Kander announced that one initiative petition has been certified to appear on the November 2014 ballot. A Constitutional Amendment to Article IX, Relating to Teacher Performance Evaluation Systems, 2014-024, will appear on the November 4, 2014 general election ballot as Constitutional Amendment 3.

The official ballot title reads:


Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:


require teachers to be evaluated by a standards based performance evaluation system for which each local school district must receive state approval to continue receiving state and local funding;
require teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;
require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts; and
prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the teacher evaluation system?

Decisions by school districts regarding provisions allowed or required by this proposal and their implementation will influence the potential costs or savings impacting each district. Significant potential costs may be incurred by the state and/or the districts if new/additional evaluation instruments must be developed to satisfy the proposal’s performance evaluation requirements.

One initiative petition was not certified for the November 2014 ballot due to an insufficient number of valid signatures. The constitutional amendment related to early voting had a sufficient number of valid signatures in two of the six required congressional districts.

For a petition seeking to amend the Missouri Constitution, valid signatures from registered voters equal to eight percent of the total votes cast in the 2012 governor's election in six of the state's eight congressional districts must be submitted.

Ballot language and full text for the issues is available on the secretary of state’s website atwww.sos.mo.gov/elections.