CECM strongly supports efforts to end teacher tenure, including the ballot initiative. Excellent teachers are the key to the academic success of students, and ending teacher tenure would ensure that districts keep teachers based on how well they perform, not how long they’ve been on the job. This is one step to ensuring that an excellent teacher is in every classroom, as districts would be held more accountable for the performance of their instructional staff.

In addition to the initiative petition, legislation tackling teacher tenure is expected to be filed this week. Follow CECM on Twitter, @cecmissouri, for the latest.

Governor Jay Nixon signed legislation on Friday that would repeal a controversial measure that limited online communication between students and teachers. 

The measure, which came to be known as the Facebook Law, came under fire late last summer when education advocates realized it would ban most online communication between students and teachers. The law became so controversial that the legislature passed a repeal of the law during Special Session in September which Governor Nixon signed today.

You can read more about the repeal and the origional law here.

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.

Included in the two omnibus bills, SB 243 and SB 147, are provisions to replace teacher tenure with multi-year contracts and increase options for virtual schooling across the state.  The  bills would also create mechanisms for student choice and transfers, both inside unaccredited districts and outside of them,  as a result of the Turner v. Clayton Missouri Supreme Court opinion.

These bills now move to the House floor for debate.

The bill’s provisions for replacing tenure with multi-year contracts are similar to HB 628, which CECM supported during the bill’s hearing in the House Education Committee.

For this reason, State Director Earl Simms testified in favor of HB 994 sponsored by State Representative Cole McNary. This bill would create means for students in unaccredited districts to transfer to accredited ones, but also adds two key provisions to give options close to the students’ homes.

One provision allows for accredited traditional public school districts to sponsor charter public schools in an unaccredited district.  The second key additional provision would create a voucher program for students in the city to use at private schools.  The bill specifies that no student would be mandated to take religious classes.

Below is the testimony in support of the bill:

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Earl Simms and I am the State Director for the Children’s Education Council of Missouri.  I would like to go on record in favor of House Bill 994. We think that the bill provides a remedy to the Turner v. Clayton case that is practical by seeking options for children to stay close to their homes and receive an accredited education.  It also would solve the concern raised about students flooding out to neighboring districts.

We do not oppose having a piece of a solution being a mechanism for students wishing to transfer to neighboring districts, such as in Representative Stream’s House Bill 763 that you heard this morning.  But I do share Representative McNary’s and others concerns with how to help students who are unable to transfer to an adjoining district.

I would also like to point out that I called St. Louis County School districts this afternoon to ask what their non- resident tuition rates are.  These were sixteen districts that received a fully accredited score based on 2010 Annual Performance Reviews (APR).  Out of these sixteen districts, seven of the sixteen districts do not accept non- resident students, even under a tuition agreement.  I heard back from four districts who had average non- resident tuition rates of between almost $10,500 and almost $12,000 depending on grade level.

I’m also concerned about this being the only solution because we heard seemingly contradictory testimony this morning that 1,200 students applied for 1,400 open seats in the Co- Operating School Districts, yet we still have waiting lists in these districts.  Representative McNeal stated this morning that 200 were on a waiting list to transfer to Hazelwood.

House Bill 994 presents solutions that would undoubtedly cost the unaccredited districts less money than to pay for these tuition costs AND transportation for these students to attend districts in the same or adjoining county.  You heard this morning that St. Louis Public Schools has 2165 seats in schools making AYP.  Why should we not have non- public quality options on the table to serve students as well?  SLPS already contracts with private providers to serve students, mainly with IEPs, and similar contracts could be made here to keep students inside of the city and not flood county districts.  To my knowledge, no Blaine Amendment concerns have been raised by these contracts.  There are provisions in HB 994 that no students opting for a voucher under the bill would be required to take classes in a particular religion.

There has been previous testimony in the Senate Education Committee that Catholic Schools in St. Louis City have an estimated ____seats that they would be willing to work with to also alleviate this concern.  We also support allowing accredited districts to sponsor charter public schools inside of an unaccredited district.  We also would like to see charter public schools further expanded to alleviate concerns of students rushing out to neighboring traditional public school districts.

House Bill 994 is a practical solution to the Turner v. Clayton case.  We should not let ideological concerns keep us from this practical solution.  Thank you for hearing my testimony and I would be happy to take any questions.

In addition, any school district that owns school buildings that have not been used for classroom instruction for two consecutive school years must either sell them or make them available for use by an accredited school district, charter school, virtual school, or nonsectarian nonpublic school, free of charge. The sale or lease terms must not include a restriction on using the facilities for educational purposes.

The bill sponsor, Senator Jane Cunningham, said that she will fight to keep the rights of students affirmed under the Supreme Court’s opinion in the case and that students deserve to be educated in an accredited school district.

Provisions in SB 370, also sponsored by Senator Cunningham, were rolled into the committee substitute for the bill and would set up a scholarship program for students in unaccredited districts to enroll in a nonpublic school, charter school, virtual school, or accredited school district. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would administer the scholarship program.

CECM has testified this session in support of multiple school choice bills that would be practical solutions to the ruling in the Turner case and help students receive a quality education and escape their unaccredited district.  We will continue to support this type of legislation throughout the session.

This path toward tenure reform has been met with fierce resistance by Missouri’s teacher unions, but is supported by the Missouri School Boards’ Association and reform groups, like CECM.  During the committee debate on the bill, HB 628, a provision tying pay to performance was removed.

While the House Education Committee in Missouri debates tenure reform, it is worth noting that multiple states have moved quickly in their legislative sessions to address the issue.  In Florida, Governor Rick Scott has already signed a reform package that eliminates the state’s tenure system and creates a merit- based pay system for all teachers in the state.  In Idaho, Governor Butch Otter has also signed similar legislation for teacher contracts and merit pay.

Additionally, governors in Indiana, Tennessee, Nevada and New Jersey have all heavily pushed packages to reform teacher pay and tenure systems in their states.  Even Illinois, a traditionally strong union state, is pushing reform of its teacher tenure system.

Lawmakers in both chambers and both political parties should join the states that are reforming or eliminating their teacher tenure and pay systems.  These reforms are long overdue in making it easier for school districts to remove poor performing teachers.  These reforms also benefit teachers — and treat them like the professionals they are — by rewarding high performance and removing barriers to growth.

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.