The troubled Normandy school system in St. Louis County is nearing its financial tipping point with requests for student transfers, Missouri's education commissioner told a Senate panel Wednesday before stressing the need for a legislative solution.
Commissioner Margie Vandeven said 482 students have applied to transfer or plan on continuing as transfer students from the school system in the 2015-16 school year.
The district can afford to pay for about 500 students to leave.
Normandy's hardships underline problems with the state's student transfer law, which requires failing districts pay tuition for students to attend a better-performing school if they choose to leave.
The state has no limit on how much school districts can charge for that tuition, and Normandy has funneled millions of dollars to pay for its students to attend nearby schools.
The number of students applying to transfer could grow if more parents request permission for their children to switch schools before the April 1 deadline. They must meet residency requirements, but Normandy's Interim Superintendent Charles Pearson said many likely will be allowed to leave.
Pearson said based on what the district paid for tuition last year, 500 students would equal a bill of roughly $6.5 million. He said the district has about $7 million to spend.
If tuition costs much more than that, Vandeven said the education department and State Board of Education might need to intervene. That could mean melding Normandy with a nearby district or breaking it up and dividing it among many school systems.
The House bill up for discussion in the Senate committee Wednesday doesn't include a set formula to determine the rate districts can charge, despite requests from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
But it does include incentives if those receiving schools charge a reduced rate. The legislation also aims to stem the flow of money from struggling districts by accrediting schools by individual building.
Students would be required to transfer to better-performing buildings within their home districts before transferring elsewhere, with the goal of keeping money in their home district.