JEFFERSON CITY — Before the conclusion of 2010, several lawmakers submitted their final recommendations for the Missouri Senate’s three “2020 Committees.” The legislative panels were created by Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, in 2009 to look at the state’s long-range plan for education, health and job creation.  All three committees terminated on Dec. 31, 2010.

The Senate Educated Citizenry 2020 Committee was charged with developing a long-term strategy and plan for an education system that ensures every Missouri child access to quality education and support for stay-at-home parents; studying the development of the state’s elementary, secondary, and higher education system and designing a system to better prepare graduates for global competition; and examining other aspects of education that the committee deemed appropriate for creating an educated citizenry in Missouri.

Those that served on the committee included Chairman Sen. David Pearce (R-Warrensburg), Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield), Sen. Joseph Keaveny (D-St. Louis), Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia), Sen. Wes Shoemyer (D-Clarence), and Sen. Wright-Jones (D-St. Louis).

Committee members based their recommendations around five major themes:

• Access – Allow all students the opportunity to attend a fully accredited school, and promote the use of technology in the delivery of education at all levels.
• Accountability – Hold all public schools accountable to high academic standards, provide access to high-quality charter schools to all Missouri students, and promote alternatives to the traditional school day and calendar year.
• Teacher quality – Develop a statewide system for evaluating teacher effectiveness to be used in performance-based and market-driven teacher compensation.
• School readiness – Provide parents and early childhood educators with the information they need to see that all children enter kindergarten on par with their peers, and advance efforts to support voluntary, universal prekindergarten.
• Governance – Require new legislators to attend a seminar on the K-12 foundation formula, require Missouri’s leaders in statewide education governance to hold an annual public meeting to discuss education initiatives and progress toward achieving the 2020 benchmarks, maximize efficient use of school district resources, encourage collaboration between school districts and higher education institutions, and create a state-level education governance system that spans from prekindergarten through postsecondary education.

Click here to listen to and watch streaming video clips from a press conference held by committee members Sen. Pearce and Sen. Keaveny announcing the committee’s final recommendations.

The Healthy Missourians 2020 Committee was responsible for developing a long-term strategy and plan to provide health insurance coverage for Missourians who do not currently have access or cannot afford coverage, and studying the development of a rational health care system in Missouri for employers, hospitals, physicians, insurance companies, and the federal government while creating market incentives for participation in the system.

Chairman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Glendale), Sen. Frank Barnitz (D-Lake Spring), Sen. Tom Dempsey (R-St. Charles), Sen. Jolie Justus (D-St. Louis), Sen. Brad Lager (R-Savannah), and Sen. Shoemyer all served on the panel, which also shared some of its recommendations.

The committee’s proposed recommendations to address the issue of overall health in Missouri include improving the health status of Missourians by reducing health care costs and providing access to health care through the use of health care technology, empowering consumers with information regarding cost and quality data, and reducing the rate of chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking rates.

The third and final 2020 committee, the Senate Job Creation 2020 Committee, has also been working on a list of final recommendations.  Those serving on the panel include Chairman Sen. Dempsey, Sen. Lager, Sen. Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis), Sen. Ryan McKenna (D-Crystal City), Sen. Scott T. Rupp (R-Wentzville), Sen. Schmitt, and Sen. Wright-Jones.

The committee was charged with developing a long-term strategy and plan for increasing the economic prosperity and opportunities for Missourians, establishing tools to help create new jobs and attract new businesses to the state, and ensuring that Missouri has a responsible regulatory environment that does not drive jobs out of the state.

Each panels’ final report will be posted on the Missouri Senate website at www.senate.mo.gov/2020Committees.

While many members of the Senate wrapped up their committee work for 2010, the upper chamber as a whole is turning its focus to the 2011 legislative session.  Senate President Pro Tem-elect Robert N. Mayer (R-Dexter) plans to devote the first several weeks of the new session to hosting work groups responsible for examining the public’s ideas on how to better manage state government.  These groups are a continuation of the work carried out by senators who participated in the “Rebooting Government” effort last spring, which identified total taxpayer savings between $689.3 million to $789.4 million.

Last session’s work groups consisted of eight specific areas of state government resources, including Agriculture/Outdoors/Department of Natural Resources, Courts/Corrections/Department of Public Safety, Education, General Government/Office of Administration, Retirement, Social Programs, Tax Structure, and Transportation.

To see a complete list of Rebooting Government recommendations, including those that have already been controlled, altered or deleted, visit www.senate.mo.gov/RebootMO and click on the recommendations link.  Citizens can use this site to also submit their ideas on how to streamline government.

Click here to listen to This Week in the Missouri Senate, which reviews what several senators consider to be the important issues lawmakers will address during the 2011 legislative session.

This update is written monthly during the interim. To follow these and other issues facing the Missouri Senate, visit www.senate.mo.gov. Visitors can track legislation as it passes through the General Assembly, learn more about their district, or, when the Legislature is in session, listen to streaming audio of legislative debate as it happens. For more legislative news, please visit the Senate Newsroom. There you will find various audio and video programs and other services, such as:

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