A lawsuit has been filed in Cole County Circuit Court asking for a change in language on a statewide ballot measure that could be voted on in November 2022.
The Missouri Public School Accreditation and Funding Initiative would appear on the ballot as an initiated constitutional amendment.
Sherri Talbott, a member of the Northwest School District Board of Education in House Springs, filed the initiative in August. At the beginning of October, Secretary of State John Ashcroft cleared the initiative for signature gathering.
The initiative would amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit vouchers, tax credits, tuition subsidies and other funding for non-public schools and establish a uniform method of public school accreditation. In her lawsuit, which asks for a declaratory judgement, Talbott said the amendment includes, "numerous exceptions where public funds could still be used for programs at non-public institutions."
At the same time Ashcroft cleared the initiative for signature gathering, Talbott claims Ashcroft also certified ballot title language for the measure which Talbott alleges "omits a central purpose of the measure and distorts the likely impact of the measure in a manner designed to inflame prejudice against it."
Talbott said the language Ashcroft uses would ask voters if they wanted to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- Remove opportunities for disabled, special needs and those students who are economically disadvantaged by eliminating public funding to non-public elementary and secondary schools through vouchers, tax credits, tuition subsidies and other funding for student attendance and staff employment;
- Limit the influence, power and authority of parents, community members and local school boards by requiring the state Board of Education to implement and supervise a uniform method of evaluation and accreditation for all public elementary and secondary schools that receive public funding including charter schools.
State governmental entities expect saving of $25-$50 million annually. Local governmental entities estimate no costs or savings.
If left unchanged, Talbott alleges, the two bullet points compromise the whole measure.
In her suit, Talbott said, "In the first bullet point, the summary statement fails to inform voters of one of the central and major features of the measure, which is to, 'preserve available general revenue for the education of students in public schools.' This would include, but not limited to, children with disabilities, children experiencing economic disadvantage and children receiving special education services." Talbott also said that the phrase, "remove opportunities," appears nowhere in the measure.
As far as the second bullet point, Talbott said there is nothing in the ballot language that mentions school boards, community members or parents or restrict them from involvement in public schools. She added it falsely suggests the measure would increase the scope of the already existing power of the State Board of Education in its statutory duty of evaluating and accrediting school districts.
Talbott is asking Judge Cotton Walker to vacate the summary statement portion of the ballot title Ashcroft certified and replace the statement with the following:
Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- Preserve public funding for use in public schools by limiting certain public funding including vouchers and tax credits for student attendance and staff employment at non-public elementary and secondary schools, with exceptions permitting five types of public funding for non-public schools, including state charitable tax deductions;
- Require the state Board of Education to implement and supervise a uniform method of evaluation and accreditation of all elementary and secondary schools receiving public funding.
No court date has been scheduled for this case.
Under Missouri law, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election in six of the eight state congressional districts. Signatures must be filed with the secretary of state six months before the election.
The smallest possible requirement is 160,199 valid signatures The deadline to submit signatures is May 8, 2022.
Once the signatures have been filed with the secretary of state, the secretary copies the petition sheets and transmits them to county election authorities for verification. The secretary of state may choose whether the signatures are to be verified by a 5 percent random sample or full verification. If the random sampling projects between 90 percent and 110 percent of required signatures, a full check of all signatures is required. If it's more than 110 percent, the initiative is certified, and, if less than 90 percent, the initiative fails.