Gov. Jay Nixon is certainly preparing for tax-cut and education-reform battles with the Republican dominated state legislature. Last week, he told members of the Missouri School Board Association, “There will be more unaffordable, ill-conceived tax cut proposals. There will be other radical experiments masked as reforms and plenty of politicians who think they can score points by attacking our schools.”
He’s right. The 2014 legislative session will certainly offer all of that and more. But one thing will be different: Republicans will find themselves in a battle similar to the one that moderate GOP legislators faced against the Tea Party during the recent government shutdown.
Normandy’s school board recently voted 3-2 to not pay its bills in regard to tuition for students who transferred to other districts. The decision will primarily impact St. Charles County's Francis Howell School District, which took in the highest number of transfer students from Normandy.
The same board voted to eliminate more than 100 positions in the cash-strapped district and to close Bel-Nor Elementary School. The Normandy School District could cease to exist next summer if it doesn't receive state financial support to the tune of about $6.8 million. Those funds are needed to get through the 2013-14 school year.
Riverview Gardens School District—which also has hundreds of student transfers, primarily to Mehlville and Kirkwood school districts—is headed down the same path, although it might take a bit longer.
Regardless of how GOP House and Senate members across suburban St. Louis feel about education reform, they must find a way to convince other Republicans to find money for unaccredited school districts. If not, thousands of students could be forced to transfer.
State Rep. Rick Stream and State Sen. Eric Schmitt, who represent parts of Kirkwood, are already hearing from constituents that a huge influx of students to the Kirkwood R-7 School District will not be tolerated.
Personally, I’m from Kirkwood and serve on a board and committee affiliated with the district. From what I've seen, transfer students have been greeted with open arms, and the program has run smoothly. But I still have reservations about the system and realize there could be an upheaval if Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts were to cease to exist.
Republican State Sen. John Lamping, who represents a swath of St. Louis County that includes Ladue and Clayton, and Rep. John Diehl, who represents a large portion of West County, represent much of the Ladue, Clayton, and Parkway school districts. I doubt their constituents want Normandy and Riverview Gardens to close their respective doors.
St. Charles County will most likely see its GOP legislators move to change the transfer law to allow students to only transfer to schools within their own counties. Thus, Normandy students would no longer be able to attend Francis Howell schools. But voters also likely will press lawmakers also will be pressed by voters to fund Normandy, out of fear that every student in that district could become an educational free agent. In a way, the road to Francis Howell has already been paved.
Some GOP members are already talking tough. During a hearing with school administrators earlier this month, State Rep. Ronald Hicks of St. Peters said, “I don’t want to keep putting money into a system that’s broken.”
But Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro warned, “If we do nothing, we’re going to have to assign 4,000 children to other schools.” More than 2,500 students already opted to transfer from Normandy and Riverview Gardens. The remaining students won’t be transferring out of the region; they'd likely end up in many schools that sit in Republican-held districts. It’s up to those GOP members to convince hardliners that money must be found to support Normandy and, ultimately, Riverview Gardens.
Yes, there are some rural districts that are bordering on losing accreditation. But the battle for additional funding will pit metropolitan against rural GOP legislators. It could get nasty before it comes to an end—just like it did in Washington earlier this month.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
