The Missouri Senate Moves on Education Choice

After much negotiation, the Missouri Senate has advanced a bill that would expand school choice (somewhat) for some Missouri families.

Senate Bill 727, which passed out of the Senate last week by a vote of 19 to 10, dramatically increases the number of children eligible to receive a scholarship under MO Scholars, an education savings account program established two years ago. Gone are the restrictions that scholarships can only go to students in Missouri's 10 largest communities. And the low-income restriction line has been raised from 200 percent of the free or reduced-price lunch boundary to 300 percent (a yearly income of roughly $166,000 for a family of four).

The reason I can only describe the expansion as "somewhat" is because, unlike the raft of states that have passed similar school choice legislation in the last few years, the bill doesn't provide any public funding for the scholarships. The six approved scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) must still raise the funds for the scholarships through donations from individuals or corporations.

The bill also-finally-allows charter schools to open outside of St. Louis and Kansas City, a policy goal that Show-Me Institute analysts have been talking about for years. Granted, only Boone County was added to the list, bringing in Columbia, but it's a start. It may take years for a charter school to actually materialize in Boone County, but at least it may soon be possible.

As I anticipated, getting this bill through the Senate required some sweeteners for school choice opponents. These included raising minimum teacher salaries and changing how we count students for the foundation formula (more on that in a coming post). Too bad the negotiators didn't get public funding for the scholarships with this trade-off. For now, we'll wait to see what happens to the bill as it moves through the House.