In 1993, the Legislature was looking to dramatically increase funding for education, but those serving in the General Assembly wanted to make sure they weren’t just giving out money to districts and not holdings districts accountable for their results.  Thus, the transfer law was born. As years passed, no process on how to handle the transfer law was ever put into place. It wasn’t until a Supreme Court decision last summer affirmed that if a student resides in a failing district, he or she would have the right to transfer to an accredited district.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the process that we had for transfer students was like a triage situation to get us through the school year. It created a very dramatic situation that was likely to only get worse if we did not address it this session.

The result of months of work and effort is Senate Bill 493. This bill is designed to do two things: provide access to quality education to every child in the state of Missouri, and take the steps we need to take to get those underperforming school districts turned around. We also tried to find ways to support additional local options for students in failing districts.

I applaud all of the people who worked on this bill before session, during session and even into the early morning hours this week. We were able to demonstrate legislative leadership to finally put a process in place to provide access to quality education for every child in the state of Missouri. It was a joy to watch people work together in the Senate, and I appreciate everyone’s willingness to put our children first.

To hear my complete floor speech from this week click, please click on one of the following links:

I always appreciate hearing from you.  If you have any questions about the topics discussed above, or about any other legislative or district issues, please do not hesitate to contact my office.