The state Senate’s education committee heard several bills Tuesday, including one which would remove the cost of a test as a possible barrier for students who didn’t graduate high school to get their degree.
House Bill 1606, sponsored by state Rep. Elaine Gannon, R-DeSoto, would require the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to subsidize the exam fee — subject to appropriations — for all first-time takers of the High School Equivalency Test, or HiSET. The HiSET is what used to be known in Missouri as the GED test.
“Not only will it help families, but it will also help our entire state,” Gannon said.
Last year, the bill passed the House by a vote of 140-6 and the Senate education committee, but didn’t make it to the Senate floor.
Gannon said the HiSET costs $95 to take, which can be an obstacle for people coming from backgrounds of poverty.
“Given that the universe of those taking the test, the poverty level is so high, it is cost-effective to accomplish the goal in the simplest, most straightforward way that would help students, which is to cover the cost of the test,” she said. “When the obstacle of cost is removed, students will have the chance to pass the high school equivalency exam and get a viable job.”
DESE Communications Coordinator Nancy Bowles reported Monday that 6,777 people took the HiSET in Missouri in 2017. This number is the “total of test-takers who actually received an equivalency certificate in 2017. The number doesn’t show whether or not someone took the test more than once,” Bowles clarified Tuesday.
Locally, Jefferson City Public Schools hosts an adult education and literacy program that is grant-funded through DESE and serves people in other area communities including Eldon, Fulton and Versailles.
Stephany Schler, director of JCPS’ Adult Education and Literacy program, reported in the 2016-17 school year, 36 people in the area took the HiSET — 14 in Jefferson City, five in Eldon, two in Fulton and 15 in Versailles. Seventy-five percent of those students passed the HiSET.
So far in the 2017-18 school year, Schler said, 25 people at those locations have taken the HiSET — 16 in Jefferson City, one in Eldon, four in Fulton and four in Versailles. Sixty-four percent of those students so far have passed the HiSET.
“We are still working on helping more students pass this program year,” she wrote in an email.
The numbers she provided do not include people who are incarcerated and study for the HiSET at the Cremer Therapeutic Center class site in Fulton, she added.
The numbers do reflect students who took at least one part of the HiSET.
“There are five different subject areas on the test that can be taken separately,” she explained.
The $95 cost is for the entirety of the test. Each individual subject area of the five costs $27 to take the first time and $17 for each subsequent subject area. Re-takes cost $7.
“Cost is absolutely an obstacle,” Schler said for her students, but added: “It’s an obstacle we always overcome because there are always a lot of organizations out there to help them pay for it.”
Otto Fajen, director of the Missouri National Education Association, who testified Tuesday in support of Gannon’s bill, said while the number of students affected might be relatively small, “for the students it affects, it’s very, very important.”
Other supporters of Gannon’s bill Tuesday included the Missouri State Teachers Association and Missouri School Administrators Coalition.
There wasn’t any opposition at the hearing, but also no representative of DESE who could answer some senators’ questions as to why DESE feels it needs to add a full-time employee at $35,000 to manage data.