May 20, 2013

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House rejects teacher performance evaluation proposal

April 11, 2013 By

The House has strongly rejected a teacher evaluation bill that was a priority for the Majority Republican leadership.

Representative Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa) sponsored the proposal that would have created a teacher evaluation system.

“To say that the system is OK is offensive to me. To say that we’re doing all we can, I contend, is untrue. To say that we accept the status quo, I say ‘No.’”

The legislation would have tied teacher performance evaluations to student growth. More than 50 members of Elmer’s own party helped vote it down.

See the legislation, HB 631

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) also voted against it. She says the state is already evaluating performance.

“We have a new evaluation system that we had through the waiver process and I was concerned that this would interfere with that.”

Representative Mike Lair (R-Chillicothe), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee on Education, spoke against the bill on the floor. He said it reflects a concept that is a wrong approach to education.

“I don’t want our education legislation to be put forth on a business model. If education was a business we wouldn’t keep half of the students we have. We need to educate them all. To do so, you can’t use a business model.”

Following more than an hour-and-a-half of debate that wrapped up at almost midnight, the House failed to perfect the bill 55-102.

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Jones wants interim education committee

June 8, 2012 By

The likely next Speaker of the Missouri House wants to see a committee formed to work on education issues in the interim, after some key issues were left on the table in the 2012 session.

Minority Floor Leader Tim Jones

Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (R-Eureka) says compared to past years when education issues fizzled, the 2012 session was “remarkable” with several passing out of the House.

“We had the charter school bill which became law which I’m very happy with, that became law … We passed the teacher tenure bill. A small step forward but a significant step. It passed the House, it almost got through the Senate. Died on the Senate floor in the last day. A second bill that passed, that school busing transportation bill which is a form of education reform. That also became law.”

Jones wants to keep that momentum going ahead of the 2013 session.

“I would like to see some kind of interim committee or even joint interim committee where the sides could get together and talk about the future. Maybe a little difficult in an election year but this issue is a priority for all Missouri children and families so I’d like to see it happen.”

Jones can’t appoint committees, but Speaker Steven Tilley can. He says if Jones wants to see any interim committees formed, “I’d be open to any suggestions he might have.”

Jones says the foundation formula for public school funding will be a key issue in 2013, but he also wants to see things like tuition tax credits and teacher tenure addressed.

With many faces in the legislature changing, Jones isn’t sure who he wants to chair such an interim committee but he knows who he would want on it: Representatives Steve Cookson (R-Fairdealing), Mike Lair (R-Chillicothe), Mike Cierpiot (R-Lee’s Summit) and Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) are some names he mentions.

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House advances changes to teacher layoff criteria (AUDIO)

May 3, 2012 By

The House has given initial approval to a very stripped down bill dealing with teacher layoffs.

Representative Scott Dieckhaus (photo courtesy: Missouri House Communications)

Language dealing with teacher tenure was stripped out of the proposal. What remains is a change to what is often called “last in, first out.” The proposed new policy would require administrators to decide what teachers to cut based first on performance, as well as training and certification, but not on salaries or seniority.

Elementary and Secondary Education chairman, Republican Scott Dieckhaus (R-Washington), says the bill, HB 1526, was the result of a compromise within his caucus. “They had some concerns about some of the other provisions that were in the bill and I asked them, if we were able to work some of those provisions out between now and next session and work on those down the road but press on with the (last in, first out) issue, if they could be supportive. Clearly there was a large number of my colleagues that are supportive of that.”

The vote on the bill was close; 80-78 on perfection. To advance to the Senate it will have to get 82 votes on third reading. That vote will likely happen today.

AUDIO:  Representatives Scott Dieckhaus and Jason Holsman (D-Kansas City) discuss the bill, 13:03

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At halftime, no education bill on the Missouri House floor (AUDIO)

March 8, 2012 By

House Republicans say they have achieved most of their slate of legislative priorities for the session heading into Spring Break, but House Democrats say one top priority has been absent from floor debate. An education bill has yet to advance out of the committee process.

The House Republican Caucus, lead by House Speaker Steven Tilley, says it has reached most of its legislative goals so far.

House Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) says those bills are still being worked on but right now there is no consensus in his caucus on them. While leadership in both parties called education a “must pass” issue early on, Tilley now says, “If we can get it done we certainly well and if we can’t, we can’t, and we’ll come back next year and work on it.”

Several GOP leaders said from the outset that they want to package together education issues this year. That could put the issues both parties are concerned with, fixes for the foundation formula and the Turner decision, in a bill with things like tuition tax credits and tenure reform.

Tilley stands by that plan. “Part of the logic between the leadership team is to try and put parts of it together so it actually could cobble together coalitions to get us to 82 (votes in the House).”

Minority Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) has his own opinion of the Republicans’ motivation. “I realize that they have (St. Louis philanthropist) Rex Sinquefield to answer to, and if Daddy Rex says that something needs to be in there then Daddy Rex is going to get what he wants.”

Minority Floor Leader Mike Talboy is flanked by the House Democratic Caucus after Thursday adjournment heading into Spring Break.

Talboy has said since the beginning of the session that the education issues need to be separated out. “Education of children in this state is more important than creating jobs that we don’t necessarily have an educated workforce to fill if we don’t do something about the education system, and I think that it is offensive to sit there and say that the economic development bills should stand on their own, but that the education bills are not important enough to stand on their own and pass on their own merits.”

Tilley says if an education bill does not pass, the session can still be called a success. “I’m not gonna pin any specific thing on whether it’s a success or a failure. I think you have to look at the session in totality.”

He adds, “But, it certainly would be something I’d like to get done.”

AUDIO:  Listen to the House Republicans media conference, 13:09

AUDIO:  Listen to the House Democrats media conference, 8:24

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Education issues: so happy together?

January 17, 2012 By

House Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville)

State lawmakers are faced with several challenging education issues in the young legislative session. Facing them first is the question of whether to deal with those issues together, or individually.

The school funding foundation formula was not designed to work when not fully funded. That is at the top of the list along with a “Turner fix,” addressing how to deal with students being transferred from failing schools to neighboring districts.

House Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) has said he wants to package those with other issues that could include enacting tax credits to support private school attendance and repealing teacher tenure protections. “I think the only thing worse than putting them together is to continue to shuffle kids through failing schools, which is what we’ve done for now a decade or more.”

Tilley adds, “Since I’ve been here for seven years the opposition to trying to trying to step outside the box and try something new has been tremendous. These same people that have been fighting us tooth and nail to try and challenge the status quo now want us to come in and fix the problem for them.”

The Speaker says the House and Senate education committee chairs agree with the idea of bundling issues. The Chair of the Joint Education Committee wants to keep them separated, however.

 

Representative Mike Thomson (R-Maryville)

Representative Mike Thomson (R-Maryville) says his bill to lay out how education money should be distributed when the foundation formula is not fully supported died in the Senate last year because too much was attached to it. “What happened last year is that some of the other issues entered in and there were some people in the Senate that said, ‘Hey listen, we’re not letting anything go through unless we get what we want.’ The Turner Fix was one of those things.”

Thomson says the student transfer issue and the foundation formula are two unrelated items. “That’s what is so frustrating in this place is that we have different issues that we need to deal with and to hold a bill that is so necessary for the survival of our schools hostage because of personal biases or political purposes, to me, is absurd.”

Thomson says he is not talking about any individual person or cause.

 

House Minority Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City)

House Minority Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) says he looks at the education questions much like Speaker Tilley has looked at economic development issues, which Tilley says he wants to deal with individually after they failed in the special session. Says Talboy, “We have certain aspects of education that have been tried, have failed, as far as votes on the floor.”

Talboy says discussing other proposals is healthy, but, “if you know that there is significant and majority opposition to certain things, that becomes where you’re going. There’s an insistence on making sure that’s there even though there’s this rampant opposition.”

Discussion of education issues will ramp up quickly this week, with meetings scheduled for the House Committees on Education Appropriations and Elementary and Secondary Education, the Senate Education Committee and the Joint Committee on Education.

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