...to kill a Mockingbird

The Show-Me Institute Blog has a really interesting insight into the Teacher Pay bill that died briefly (and is currently being pulled from its shallow grave). The language (providing tax credits for donations made into a scholarship fund) stripped from the bill was a seemingly fatal blow for the millions of dollars in raises to public school teachers. If you’re not familiar with the politics of the issue, it goes a little like this: teachers unions in the state (and nationally) are diametrically opposed to tuition tax credits or any options/choice the state may offer to kids who default to the public schools and keep them in business, so to speak. The teachers unions in Missouri have been pushing this essential pay-raise package for teachers (and now nurses and bus drivers), and when it made it into an Omnibus education bill in the house this week, it came with the same language of scholarship tax credit for special needs children they’ve been working overtime to kill.

Here is what the Show-Me Institute writes about this conundrum:


Somebody had the great idea of attaching the Special Needs Tax Credit bill to the teacher pay bill — which is a pretty brilliant idea, in my opinion. If the teachers' unions support increased teacher pay (with no merit pay, of course ... that would just be too crazy for us to pay good teachers what they deserve), and the school choice advocates support tax credits for autistic children, why not combine both provisions?

It turns out, though, that that was the deal-breaker.

From the Post-Dispatch’s coverage:

When the scholarship program was inserted into the teacher pay bill last week, two large teacher groups dropped their support for it. A lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association said his group was "passionately opposed."

What a shock.

Who are the teachers' unions looking out for? The teachers, the students, or their own institutional power? The unions decided that they would rather prevent teachers — the people they reportedly represent — from earning pay raises so that they could ensure that no infinitesimal limit to their power could take root in a tax credit bill designed to help autistic children who aren’t being served by the public schools.

I’m sorry, students and teachers of Missouri, that there are people out there working so hard to prevent improvements in the state's education system.

Unfortunately, that assessment seems right on target given what went down.

Dead? Or Merely Sleeping?

An update:

Missouri’s Special Needs Scholarship tax credit legislation was recently folded into an Omnibus Education Bill on teacher pay, HB 2040/2430. Legislators debated the language about Special Needs students in an especially heated session this Wednesday. Speaker Rod Jetton’s comments allude to the incident of an altercation between Speaker Pro-Tem Steve Tilley and Representatives Trent Skaggs and Brian Nieves. I imagine it happened in a “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” kind of way, after reading some eye-witness reports.

Ultimately, the scholarship language was stripped from the bill via an amendment from Rep. Maynard Wallace, a former public school Superintendent.

Speaker Pro-Tem Tilley was quoted as saying that the teacher pay bill wouldn’t “see the light of day” after the loss of the scholarship tax credit language, but the cry this morning is that the bill may be resurrected. It’s a significant loss for both sides of the aisle if assistance for both teachers and special needs children cannot come to terms with one another.

We’ll see what the day brings. You've gotta admire Tilley for putting his foot down on this one.

Scholarship tax credits: extending a right

KWMU briefs on the ongoing tuition tax credit legislation:

The Missouri Senate has set aside a bill that would provide scholarships for disabled children to attend better-performing public or private schools.

It would also provide state tax breaks to private donors who fund them.

Supporters say the bill would provide more opportunity for kids afflicted with various types of disabilities to get a good education.

But State Senator Rita Heard Days (D, St. Louis) expressed concern that some kids could be worse off by switching schools.

"So often we throw things to the private entity, and we have no accountability about that process...special needs children are indeed special, and I want to make sure that wherever they're being educated that we know what they're doing, we know the situations that they're in, and we know that they are getting a proper education," Days said.

Democrats spent over two hours on Monday discussing and questioning the bill in what appeared to be a potential filibuster.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Charlie Shields (R, St. Joseph) says he hopes an agreement can be reached before the end of session.

"It falls in that category, if we can get past the emotion and get past the 'camel's nose under the tent' arguments, that there might be something that can be worked out on it," Shields said.

Opponents believe the bill is a back-door attempt to legalize private school vouchers in Missouri.

Interesting point made by Rep. Days. We do, often, for lack of a better term “thrown things at the private sector”. Things like health care, construction, food, haircuts, literature, research and development about major diseases, lawn furniture, automobiles, clothing…

It is this private sector that makes this NOT a socialist country, and while I would second her sentiment that special needs children need to be in a safe and appropriate environment, I just don’t see how the state can make that decision any better than a parent can. Right now families with special needs children face tremendous obstacles to getting the best education, and this legislation offers a very real, very viable solution. It catalyzes the philanthropic community to support special needs education specifically, and gives families the ability to take that gift and use it toward the most appropriate option for their child.

So while I understand the sentiment, I have to think, well, parents make choices all the time for their children. They choose what kind of insurance to get, they plan a diet, and they choose the most appropriate toys for their child’s age. Parents choose what daycare to go to, and what activities their child will participate in, and inherent in that is the fact that parents are qualified to make choices that affect their children. These areas of a child’s life are just as important and serious as K-12 education, and those who have the money are unrestricted and free to make that choice. While Rep. Days may care deeply and want your child to be safe and succeed, it really should be your choice as a parent with custody of a child to determine what education works best for your special needs child.

It is obvious that ALL parents DO have a right to send their child to an alternative school. They do! They may not have the money, but they have a right. The choice being made by the state on special needs tax credit is not whether parents have a right to choose another school, nor is it a decision about the quality of private schools. The choice is whether Missouri will give all parents of special needs children the choice that only some now have. They don’t have that choice because they are more qualified to make it, but because they have the finances to pay for tuition. For special needs children, tuition to specialty schools can run too high for even middle class families to afford.

If the concern is that kids will be “worse off” at a new school, then why are we not also concerned about students who are currently “worse off” at a public school that isn’t conducive to their disability?