JC/DC ACTION ALERT: MO Empowerment Scholarships Account Program

** PLACED ON CALENDAR FOR COMMITTEE HEARING** Please contact the House Ways and Means Committee now!

HB 2188 has been placed on the House Ways and Means Calendar.

HB 2188 would establish the Show Me Opportunity Scholarship Program

The Show Me Opportunity Scholarship Program is a particular concern for PTA because this program would create an account that would allow taxpayers to make a qualifying contribution to an educational assistance organization and claim a tax credit, as described in the act. The tax credit is for one hundred percent of the amount of the contribution. The tax credit may be carried forward for four years and may be transferred, sold, or assigned. The scholarships will be used in private schools effectively creating a voucher system in Missouri.

Missouri PTA encourages you to send emails to the House Ways and Means Committee to let them know your feelings on this bill.

Dear Representatives,

The Show Me Opportunity Scholarship Program is not good for students and parents, taxpayers and Missouri’s public schools for the following reasons:

Irresponsible expansion of tax credits when the state is facing massive shortfalls in the current budget.

This is a voucher in a bad disguise. This bill attempts to funnel public funds to private schools and home schools. It also allows these funds to be spent on for-profit schools, including virtual schools, with no oversight. This bill is not about seeking quality education for students. This bill is not about choice but about killing public education as we know it, with no assurances that education will be delivered at all.

Lack of financial oversight of the schools receiving the funds. There is no accountability required of the schools receiving these funds. These entities are not required to be located in Missouri or governed by Missouri residents. These entities can be for-profit institutions created solely to earn money off of the backs of Missouri students. They could be fly-by-night organizations that deliver no actual education, but profit at the expense of Missouri taxpayers.

Lack of educational oversight of the schools receiving the funds. These schools are not required to administer the MAP, identify or educate students with disabilities, or be accredited by any organization. Missouri tax dollars will be spent for students to be taught by teachers without certification or the specialized knowledge to identify learning disabilities, dyslexia, etc. The teachers and education providers receiving the funds are not even required to undergo a criminal background check. Missouri tax dollars could be spent on services and therapies that are not educationally sound. The bill states that a school “shall not be required to alter its creed, practices, admissions policy, or curriculum in order to accept students” under a scholarship, which means students with disabilities could be denied enrollment and students with disabilities can be refused specialized education. Schools could deny enrollment based on economic status or grades.

Expands education beyond the age of 21. Unlike free public education, which expires once the student turns 21 or graduates high school, parents and students may continue to receive these scholarships indefinitely as long as the student does not complete high school or passes a test for admission to college. 166.705.2

Please oppose HB 2188 by voting no.

Sincerely,

Your name and PTA

Not sure how to contact the Ways and Means Committee? Click here

Carla Wiese
Vice President & Director of Legislation and Advocacy
[email protected]

Missouri PTA Testimony on SB 793 and HB 2188

JC/DC ACTION ALERT: Children in Adult Prisons

SB 793 has been placed on the calendar for hearing in the Judiciary Committee.

Currently Missouri law incarcerates children who have been charged as adults in adult prisons. While they have been charged with serious offences, these children have not yet been convicted of a crime. SB 793 would require children to be prosecuted in juvenile courts unless the child is certified as an adult or is being prosecuted for a traffic or curfew violation. Additionally, the bill specifies that no person under the age of 18 may be detained in an adult jail unless the person has been certified as an adult. This bill does NOT change the ability of the court to certify youth as adults for heinous crimes and hold these offenders in adult facilities.

Dear Senator,

Children who commit serious crimes should be held accountable for their actions. However, incarcerating children charged, but not convicted, in adult facilities is a sentence in itself. Children are not the same as adults and until they are found guilty should be afforded extra protections. When children are incarcerated in adult prisons they face a dramatically increased danger of sexual assault and have higher risks of suicide. These facilities do not afford children the opportunities of education and rehabilitation services available in the juvenile detention system. Instead of working to rehabilitate these children when their mental development is at its’ capacity to learn we are teaching them to be hardened criminals.

The Missouri Model has long been the national model with regard to state juvenile justice systems. This allowance to house charged but not convicted children with adults is a flaw we need to recognize and correct. Please vote yes on SB 793 to keep kids 17 and younger out of adult prisons.

Sincerely,

You name and PTA

Senate Judiciary Committee:

Bob Dixon, [email protected]

Bob Onder, [email protected]

Ed Emery, [email protected]

Andrew Koenig, [email protected]

Scott Sifton, [email protected]

Carla Wiese

VP Legislation and Advocacy

Missouri PTA

[email protected]

Community and Parent Engagement Toolkit

DESE has launched a Parent and Community Engagement Toolkit to help schools and organizations gather feedback on building Missouri’s school report cards. If you want parents and other members of your community to have input, you can volunteer to host a focus group session. We’ll provide all the tools you need including a facilitator guide, script and three feedback activities. Each session should only take one hour of participants’ time. The deadline for feedback is Feb. 1, 2018. Find out more and volunteer to host an engagement session here: https://dese.mo.gov/build-mos-report-card.

Thank you!

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education | Communications | 573-751-3469 | dese.mo.gov

Missouri Budget Project Report

The Missouri Budget Project released an analysis today showing that bills being considered by the Missouri Senate Ways & Means Committee will do little for most Missouri families, pass on costs to middle and lower income Missourians, and leave our communities reeling.

A few highlights of the report:

Both bills would provide giveaways to Missouri’s wealthiest at the expense of low and middle income taxpayers:

In 2019, Missourians with average incomes of $1.387 million would get around $11,000 under SB 617, while most working Missourians would see little impact or even tax increases.

In fact, an analysis by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy found that 91% of the tax cut would flow to the wealthiest 20% of Missourians.

Like in Kansas, Missouri would have little alternative but to move toward regressive sales taxes, making our tax system even more unfair for lower income earners.

The consequences of the bills would leave our communities reeling:

The tax provisions included in the bills that would increase revenue are not enough to make up for the size of the new giveaways for top wealth holders. In fact, the net effect of SB 617 would cut $464 million from state general revenue in 2019, while SB 611 would reduce state revenue by more than $1 billion. These cuts would come at a time when Missouri is struggling to meet its budget needs due to numerous loopholes and corporate giveaways, and would require additional and steep cuts to community agencies.

In addition, SB 617 would eliminate the individual income tax over time, increasing its cost each year and eventually resulting in an annual cut of $6.6 billion. Individual income tax currently provides $6.6 billion to support the FY 2018 budget, or 36% of all state-source funding (not including federal funds). There would simply be no way for Missouri to compensate for the loss of revenue.

Both bills would place Missouri on a fiscal path that would make Kansas’ recent experience with tax cuts look like a cake walk.

Read the full report here.