Legislative Update
As the House works through its budget deliberations, the Senate Appropriations Committee continues to hear testimony from the state departments. As always, one of the biggest challenges the committee will face this year is figuring out how best to fund our public schools, which serve 918,483 Missouri students, grades PK-12, in 518 school districts. The governor’s 2018 recommendation of $3.4 billion for the Foundation Formula is roughly $48 million short of full funding, but a lot closer than we have been in years.
One bright spot thus far is that a court ruled in favor of the state, enabling us to recoup $50 million in tobacco settlement money owed us. Baring a counter ruling at the federal level, the governor has reinstated $11 million of those funds for school transportation, a line item he cut by $36 million earlier this year. Unfortunately, that still leaves a $25 million shortfall in transportation funds, which is a real concern, particularly for rural districts. As one of my Senate colleagues noted in an example, school buses in Cassville, Mo. travel more than 1700 combined miles a day, which is farther than the distance to Los Angeles. As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I am hopeful we will be able to find a way to fund the gap in school transportation costs. Certainly, there are enough challenges to getting a quality education today without adding the obstacle of physically getting students to school.
Increasingly, one such challenge is the growing absence of teachers for highly specialized courses like chemistry, physics and calculus, a particular problem in our rural districts. I am pleased the governor included in his budget recommendations $2 million for virtual schools, which could potentially fund 4000 classroom hours per school year. The Senate Education Committee has heard several bills proposing different plans for implementing virtual schools and online classroom study. This issue is one about which I am very passionate because I can’t fathom the disadvantage I would have been in when I entered college had I not had highly skilled teachers in advanced math and science classes in high school. It saddens me to think that I might not have been able to attain my life goal of becoming a veterinarian, but not for the high quality instruction I had. I am pleased we are on-course to ensure future generations have the same opportunities I enjoyed.
In addition to hearing a budget presentation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the Appropriations Committee also heard from our state’s new Commissioner of Higher Education, Zora Mulligan. Ms. Mulligan emphasized that the department of Higher Ed is shifting its focus away from access and toward success, so that we aren’t just getting students enrolled in college, but are making graduation the goal. I certainly applaud that philosophy.
Since her tenure began last fall, she’s been establishing processes for determining whether or not to grant tuition increase waivers to those Missouri colleges and universities that apply. Senate Bill 389, passed in 2007, allows institutions of higher learning to increase tuition without paying a penalty, if they meet certain criteria. Commissioner Mulligan explained that a review board will be asking the following questions:
- What is the institution doing to ensure budgets shrink in structural ways, e.g., overall cost of operations;
- How much of a gap of the projected shortfall is the institution going to try and make up with the tuition increase; and
- What is the institution doing to decrease students’ overall costs, noting that some are considering decreasing the number of credit hours to graduate.
Colleges and universities seeking tuition increase waivers may start submitting requests May 1. Following a public comment period, it is expected the institutions will know in early June whether the commissioner has granted their wavers.
Senate Appropriations has about wrapped up department presentations. Following Legislative Spring Break, which runs March 17-24, the budget bills will move over from the House and we will begin reviewing the lower chamber’s budget against the governor’s recommendations to craft our recommended budget. We will then conference with the House Budget Committee until we arrive at a finalized budget that reflects the work of both chambers.
As noted in an earlier column, the finalized budget needs to be sent to the governor’s desk for his signature by April 28. As the final stretch of this legislative session promises to be extremely busy on the budget front, I will look forward to keeping you apprised of developments, particularly as they relate to the 16th District.
Always feel free to contact me throughout the year with any comments, questions, or issues by calling my office at (573) 751-5713 or by visiting my website at www.senate.mo.gov/brown.
Thank you for reading this and for your participation in state government.