The bill passed after much debate on the effects of the legislation on struggling rural school districts.  During the initial approval process, an amendment was adopted to limit who could sponsor charter schools in provisionally accredited districts to alleviate some of these concerns.

The amendment only allows, in these districts, sponsors who meet quality standards set by the State Board of Education, the local school board or the newly created Missouri Charter Public School Commission.  The district would have to be provisionally accredited for three years before one of these sponsors could open a charter school.

HB 473 calls for expanding charter school sponsoring organizations to include:

• Any public four-year college or university.
• A community college with a service area that encompasses some portion of an eligible school district.
• Any private college or university with its primary campus in Missouri.
• A two-year private nonprofit vocational or technical school.
• The Missouri Charter Public School Commission. which would be created by this legislation,
• A nonprofit or charitable organization meeting specified requirements.

In fully accredited districts only the local school board could sponsor a charter school.

The bill also greatly increases the accountability standards on charter schools.  Provisions in HB 473 allow the State Board of Education to close a school and suspend a sponsor for poor performance or financial management.  Sponsors must also apply to be allowed to open a charter school and all current sponsors must reapply.  Reporting requirements on student performance and financial management were also increased.

CECM was glad to work with lobbyists from the Missouri Charter Public School Association and Pelopidas, LLC to pass this legislation.  The bill now moves onto the State Senate where it will likely be heard in the Education Committee on Wednesday.

Legislation that would extend the scope, and increase the accountability, of charter public schools was debated in the Missouri House of Representatives last week.  A compromise amendment to HB 473 offered by State Representative Mike Thompson was pending when the bill was laid over until this week.

The compromise amendment was crafted after discussions with multiple stakeholder groups in the education establishment and the education reform movement.  The main points of the bill, should the amendment be adopted, are as follows:

• Charter schools would be allowed in unaccredited districts under the original provisions of HB 473.  These provision would expand sponsorship to non-profits, community colleges and the newly created Missouri Charter Public School Commission.
• Charter schools could open in provisionally accredited districts after the district is labeled provisionally accredited for three years.  Charter schools in these districts would only be sponsored by “quality sponsors” as defined by a rule of the State Board of Education, or by the school board in the district.
• In fully accredited districts only the school boards of the district could sponsor charter schools.
• All accountability measures from the committee substitute for HB 473 remain in place.  These measures include a provision allowing the State Board of Education to close a poor performing charter school and a requirement that potential charter sponsors apply to the state board for approval.  Current sponsors would also be required to reapply.

Legislation that would allow charter schools to be sponsored by any school board in the state was also debated, and held over, on the floor of the State Senate last week.  This bill increases some reporting requirements on charters and does not increase the scope of who can sponsor a charter school outside of the local district’s school board.  An amendment to the bill that would allow the mayor of St. Louis to sponsor charter schools was offered by Senator Jim Lembke, but then withdrawn after it was clear that it would be filibustered.

Both bills are still on the legislative calendars in each chamber and could be brought back up for discussion any time the chambers are in session.

But compromise amendments were made in order to satisfy concerns about opening charter schools in rural and suburban districts that are performing well.  The amended bill would, after three years, allow only school districts to sponsor a charter school in the district if it has been fully accredited for five consecutive years.  This would exclude sponsors, other than the school district, in about 4/5 of the state’s school districts.

All of the accountability measures were kept in the amended bill, including a new one that would immediately close charter schools that are performing below all of the traditional district schools.  Another amendment was added that would allow suburban school districts to sponsor a charter school inside of the St. Louis Public School district.  The Mayor of St. Louis was also removed as a sponsor for charter schools.

The vote for the amended bill was 10-5.  The bill will now go to the full House for a vote.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for hearing this bill today and receiving my testimony.  My name is Earl Simms and I am the State Director for the Children’s Education Council of Missouri.  We are Missouri’s leading advocates for education reform.

Legislation expanding charter public schools statewide is long overdue to give all children in Missouri access to an educational option that has made a life changing difference to so many children nationwide.  Alternatives, like charter public schools, are desperately needed in districts that have been labeled as unaccredited or provisionally accredited where no options exist, unless you are in St. Louis or Kansas City.

Why should children in the unaccredited district of Riverview Gardens be denied potential access to an option outside of their unaccredited district?  Why should children in Malta Bend R-V, Jennings, Normandy, Calhoun R-VIII and Hickman Mills, which DESE’s September Annual Performance Reviews said were on a path to unaccreditation, be denied an option outside of their failing school districts?

Why should children in Hayti R-II, Exeter R-VI, Humansville R-IV, Ferguson- Florissant, Oregon- Howell R-III, University City, Charleston R-I, Caruthersville, Hazelwood, Scott County Central, Clarkton C-4 and Laquey R-V, all trending toward provisional accreditation according to the same September report, be denied an option outside of their failing school district?

I call out these districts by name, and have marked them on a map attached to my written testimony, to show that the need for expanding charter schools is not just an urban core problem in the St. Louis and Kansas City area.  The need for options outside of a traditional district setting is in all districts in the state, and for people of all racial, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.

In addition to the 20 districts that this September report said could potentially be unaccredited or provisionally accredited, there are many children all across the state that are not learning in the typical traditional education environment that could benefit from expanding charter schools statewide and become involved in innovative programs.

Two years ago I spoke with a wonderful lady who would like to turn her private French language immersion school in Columbia into a charter public school to give more access to people in that community who are interested in her program. She said her dream was to bring to Columbia a school similar to Academie Lafayette, a French immersion school in Kansas City, which is one of, if not the, top charter public school in the state.  Why should children in Columbia, Springfield, or any other area of the state, be denied potential access to these types of innovative programs?

In addition to expanding charter public schools statewide, we support the expanded accountability measures in this bill.  The promise of charter public schools is not to have charter schools for name sake, but to have high quality charter public schools.  If these schools are not performing at high levels according to the tenants of their charter, then they should close.  We do agree that the State Board should have the authority to close a school for poor performance or financial mismanagement.  We also support provisions in this bill to increase initial planning and reporting requirements on sponsors.  Quality sponsorship plays a key role in founding a quality charter school.

We also support provisions in this bill to expand the entities that can sponsor a charter school.  I recently attended a panel discussion at the St. Louis Science Center where the main question was how to increase learning in Math, Science and Technology.  I immediately thought of how great it would be if the Science Center could sponsor a charter to focus on these areas well within their expertise.  The same could be said of many other entities across the state who have a wealth of knowledge to give back to the students in their communities.

The legislature should also expand charter schools statewide as large piece of the puzzle to practically resolve the affects resulting from the Missouri Supreme Court’s opinion in the Turner v. Clayton ruling.  Not increasing educational options in failing school districts could result in the potential flooding of neighboring school districts of students from St. Louis, Riverview Gardens, and future unaccredited districts. A much more practical solution is to give these children the options that they are seeking closer to their homes.

Missouri is the only state in the country, to my knowledge, to have a geographic cap on charter schools.  This cap denies students in many other areas of the state an option that they desperately need.  It also blocks students from access to innovative programs that are showing results in Missouri and around the country.   I want to thank Representative Jones for filing this legislation and I ask each member of this committee to support this bill.  Thank you and I would be happy to take any questions.

Currently, charter schools are only allowed to operate in, and accept students from, the St. Louis and Kansas City public school districts.  Sponsorship is also limited to public, four- year universities and private universities in St. Louis.  These nationally one- of- a- kind geographic limitations have caused many of the high performing national charter school programs to pass by Missouri when seeking to expand and help more children find quality education options.

The legislation also increases accountability by allowing the Missouri State Board of Education to close a charter if it fails to meet academic or financial stability benchmarks.  The legislation sets requirements of sponsors to develop policies and procedures for reviewing charter school proposals, granting of a charter and ongoing oversight of the school.  New language is introduced in the bill that requires sponsors to have a plan in place at the start of the charter in case the school were to be closed, and plans to inform parents of their options in the event that closure occurs.

CECM is in support of the initial concepts of this bill and looks forward to working with Representative Jones, and other allies, on passage of this legislation.

Some of the key recommendations in the report include;

• Expand chartering statewide.
• Create a new statewide authorizer in Missouri to approve and oversee high-quality public charter schools.
• Prioritize state oversight by clarifying the criteria by which the State Board of Education can hold authorizers accountable for performance.
• Provide adequate resources to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that will support its charter school responsibilities properly.
• Close chronically low-performing charter schools by creating standards of academic performance and taking action against persistently failing schools.
• Equalize resources between charter and other public schools by making charters eligible for all state-funding streams.
• Improve the authorizing environment by requiring incumbent authorizers to re-apply for their status.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, I hope to see continued progress on filing charter school legislation that meets most, if not all, of these recommendations.  The recommendations in this report are a meaningful step to moving Missouri education reform forward.  Students in all areas of Missouri deserve access to quality charter schools.

We are excited to announce that on Monday, January 24th CECM will join with Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, House Education Committee Chairman Scott Dieckhaus and a bi partisan group of state legislators to announce the filing of education reform bills during the 2011 legislative session.  The press conference will take place in the House Lounge on the 3rd floor of the Missouri State Capitol Building at 2:30pm.

On Monday, January 24th we will participate in a legislators only viewing of Waiting for Superman at the Truman Theater in the state capital of Jefferson City.  State Director, Earl Simms, will be part of the panel discussion following the film.

On Tuesday, January 25th, CECM is co- sponsoring a legislators only screening of The Lottery at the Capital Theater, also in Jefferson City.  The other sponsors will be the Missouri Charter Public School Association and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.