House members voted 119-36 to undo Nixon’s action, moving to stop a pay hike proposed through a Department of Health and Senior Services rule. The measure now becomes law.
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“This cheapening of the foundation formula would break a promise we made to our local schools and students to educate”.
The move to change the state’s funding formula comes after the Legislature and governor have failed to meet funding goals for schools for years. The portion that would have been affected by the measure Nixon vetoed is called the state adequacy target.
The new legislation affects only the funding target and does not limit lawmakers from spending more or less on education in the actual state budget. Under the proposal, it would be about $54 million short. “By giving future governors and legislators a passing grade for a lower score, Senate Bill 586 would provide cover for legislators to turn their backs on our local schools by passing even more reckless tax breaks that will further erode funding for education and require local taxpayers to shoulder more of the financial burden to provide our children with a quality education”. A cap was included in the formula when it was designed in 2005, but lawmakers removed it in 2009, believing gambling revenues would greatly bolster education spending.
Republicans defended the cuts, saying you can’t lose money that you never had to begin with.
Republican backers called it a more realistic picture of what the state could afford.
Missouri students in private schools would be eligible for the state’s A+ Scholarship under a bill advancing in the Legislature.
Legislators for years have fallen short of meeting those goals.
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This is “the most generous photo ID bill that this country has seen”, Rep. Shamed Dogan, a Republican from Ballwin, said before the legislation passed 112-38 on Wednesday. Mike Lodewegen, the associate executive director for government affairs at the Missouri Association of School Administrators, said he hoped that, whatever happens, lawmakers and the next governor could sit down and figure out ways to come up with the resources necessary for education. “At the end of the day it’s just politics at its finest”.
