Observers of the Missouri General Assembly believe several education bills that didn't make it to the finish line last spring likely will be filed again.
The first day to submit new bills for the next legislative session is Monday.
School grade cards
It's possible a bill giving every public school building a simple grade card - using an A to F scale - could resurface, Mike Reid, legislative consultant for the Missouri School Boards' Association, told the Jefferson City Board of Education at its November meeting.
Brent Ghan, who serves as MSBA spokesman, said his organization has concerns about that approach.
"It's an idea that has been around for a while, but we feel it oversimplifies the process of evaluating the performance of a building," Ghan said. "Sometimes a single letter grade can be misleading in terms of a school's performance."
Brittany Wagner, education policy research assistant for the Show-Me Institution, said her organization supports the idea.
"The current accountability system is very complex," she said. "An easy A-to-F grading system is something parents can understand."
School transfers
Lawmakers also are expected to continue their work solving one of the most contentious problems in Missouri school governance today: the ability of students to transfer from non-accredited districts to accredited ones.
Last spring, lawmakers crafted legislation that revised a 1993 law requiring unaccredited districts to pay for students choosing to transfer to nearby school districts. Some unaccredited districts in the St. Louis area, struggling to meet those transfer costs, have even been pushed into bankruptcy.
Last session's bill required students wanting to transfer to first switch to better schools in their home district and created a second option of transferring to a private school. Nixon vetoed it because of the private school provision, and it was not revived for an override.
"Everyone knows what a quality bill looks like," said Mike Lodewegen, legislative advocate for the Missouri Association of School Administrators.
He said such a bill would give receiving districts the ability to control class sizes, so they aren't unexpectedly required to construct more facilities. Also, such a bill would allow students to first transfer within their own districts from poorly performing buildings to better ones.
But other policy questions - such as "Who pays for transportation?" and "Will there be tuition caps?" - haven't yet been resolved, he said.
Wagner said it will take communication between all parties in order to get "things to work smoothly."
In the meantime, Wagner hopes lawmakers will consider vouchers - which permit parents to direct taxpayer-provided funding to private schools they pick - as a valid way for students to access better education.
"We do want students to be able to transfer out of unaccredited schools," she said. "Any educational choice - private or public - would be good."
However, vouchers are something public school advocates consider verboten.
"That's where we draw a line in the sand," Ghan said.
Lodewegen is hopeful the Legislature will enact a solution by next summer.
But his organization feels that simply allowing students to transfer to better buildings "doesn't fix the underlying problem," he said.
"There's a correlation between poverty and academic scores," he said. "The unaccredited schools are doing their best. They are dealing with major, major issues."
Expansion of charter schools
In his remarks to the Jefferson City Board of Education, Reid also said he expected to see legislation filed that would expand the role of charter schools in Missouri.
Currently, charter schools are only operated in Missouri's most-urban school districts, but he expects a push to see more throughout the state - possibly even expanding their ability to levy taxes and make use of vacant buildings.
But Reid said MSBA still harbors concerns about accountability and board make-up.
"You can be a charter school board member and not be a resident of Missouri," he said.
Ghan said charter schools are not the "silver bullet a lot of people envisioned."
But Lodewegen was more skeptical of the charter school movement. He noted Missouri State Auditor Thomas Schweich's office recently issued audit reports critical of two now-defunct Kansas City charter schools. The audits cited numerous failings and rated the overall performance of both entities as "poor."
"We have a long way to go" before the charter school movement expands, he suggested.
The Show-Me Institution is a proponent of expanding charter schools statewide.
"It would be great to see the expansion of charter schools," Wagner said.
She said one place where charter schools could possibly expand is on military bases, like Whiteman Air Force Base.
U.S. citizenship exams
Another bill expected to resurface is the requirement that students must pass a U.S. citizenship exam - the same one administered to immigrants hoping to become naturalized American citizens.
Ghan said his organization hasn't yet taken a firm stance on any potential legislation.
"We want to see the bills; we understand there is some public support for the concept," he said. "What we're asking is: How would it be different from the tests students currently are required to take on the U.S. and Missouri constitutions?"
It's likely the U.S. citizenship exams would have material that is redundant with exams students already are required by law to take.
The Show-Me Institute doesn't support this approach.
"State mandates are never good. This would not be a positive, in our eyes," Wagner said.
Instead, the institute supports more school choice for parents. She noted when students and parents choose their own schools - public, parochial or private - civic engagement tends to rise naturally.
Early childhood education
If legislation is filed to expand early childhood education in Missouri, MSBA will support those bills, Ghan said.
"We will be supporting expanding early childhood education to more students," he said, noting many education experts believe improving educational opportunities for very young students offer the biggest academic pay-off years down the road.
"We believe that's something that should be available to all students," Ghan said. "Will there be funding available? That's an issue we need to address."
Home-schooled athletes
Reid also mentioned to the Jefferson City board members that there might be a push to allow home-schooled children to play on public schools' athletic teams and participate in other extracurricular activities.
He noted the Missouri State High School Activities Association upholds certain requirements - such as maintaining passing grade-point averages and attending classes - before it allows students to fully participate in an activity. He said it's unclear at this point in time how those rules might apply to home-schooled students.
Wagner said her organization has not taken a position on the issue yet. But she does see the idea as an "olive branch" public schools could extend to home-schooled students.
"There's a generalization that home schooling is academically deficient, and that's just not the case," she argued.
Get involved
Concluding his remarks to the Jefferson City Board of Education, Reid encouraged them to communicate with the General Assembly.
"I would ask our members to sit down with their state representatives and ask them to fill out where they stand on various issues," Reid suggested, adding they must also follow up as the session unfolds. "Did they vote the way they told you they would?"
Reid noted the board's job can be tougher than a state lawmaker's.
"The difference is, you don't get paid and you catch a lot more flack than they do," he said.