Missouri Passes Bill To Reclaim State Control of Education Standards
JEFFERSON CITY, MO – With strong support in both the House and Senate, the Missouri legislature passed HB1490 whose main purpose is to define a system wherein state education experts will evaluate and recommend state K-12 education standards. HB1490 passed the House 131:12 and the Senate 23:6. While not going nearly as far in returning local control of education as members of the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core had hoped, the bill is a good first step towards reclaiming state sovereignty over education.“We would have liked the language to be a lot stronger in terms of rejecting the Common Core State Standards. We will have to rely on the professional integrity of those selected to be on the various work groups to really focus on what is best for our students and teachers and not be swayed by outside political or financial interests,” said Anne Gassel a co-founder of MCACC. The coalition is a grassroots group made up of mothers and fathers, grandparents, teachers and school board members who are working together to restore local control of education.
HB1490, sponsored by Representative Kurt Bahr of St. Charles county, originally called for just the immediate cessation of implementation of Common Core State Standards. Several amendments were added by the House to address the practical issues of what would happen to districts while the state was working on new standards. “It was a team effort between grassroots supporters and our counterparts in the Senate. I am happy to have gotten a bill that will force an open and transparent process involving all of Missouri in the education of our children,” said Bahr.
The bill contains a one year moratorium on actions that could be taken based on student test scores on the statewide standardized tests aligned to the CCSS. Teacher evaluations cannot be affected by these scores, nor can they negatively impact district accreditation. The Missouri School Improvement Plan (MSIP5) which the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education imposed three years ago in a process that was far less consultative with local administrators than it had ever been in the past, required student test scores be used for both accreditation and teacher evaluation.
Senator Ed Emery (District 31) carried the bill in the Senate which added additional measures including the protection of student data. The bill which passed out of the Senate differed enough from the House bill to require a conference committee to work out the differences. The committee also sought input from the Governor’s office to make the bill less vulnerable to a veto.
In February 2009, Governor Jay Nixon told C-SPAN, “Education… is primarily a state responsibility, no doubt about it.” He stated that Missouri had an “outstanding” public education system. During 2008 a visit by then US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, she had this to say about Missouri’s standards, “Massachusetts gets a lot of air time about their high standards, Missouri Passes Bill To Reclaim State Control of Education Standards | Missouri Education Watchdog: