The Children’s Education Council of Missouri worked with the Missouri Education Reform Council and the Black Alliance for Educational Options to defeat the proposed merger of the state’s education departments. SJR 44 & SJR 45 would have placed a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that, if passed, would combine the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with the Department of Higher Education (DHE).
CECM and our allies felt the pending legislation left many unanswered questions about the merger. The House Higher Education agreed and decided to not take a vote on the merger during the last week of the session. Instead, the committee will request that the Joint Education Committee study the issue during their interim meetings.
We hope that the interim study will provide details about how the merger would work. We will watch this issue closely during the interim and next legislative session.
