Senator Rob Mayer, sponsor of SB603 that would create an open enrollment law for Missouri, responds to misinformation in Tuesday’s Daily Dunklin:

It’s a hot topic today among school administrators, parents and parents-to be, and Missouri politicians. The issue of open enrollment is in the limelight for the second time in as many years, with a current proposal in the form of Senate Bill 603 on the table. The bill is sponsored by Dexter’s Sen. Rob Mayer.

While Mayer is on an active campaign to “clarify the misinformation circulating about the proposed changes to Missouri law” regarding the bill with his name attached, Dexter Supt. Dr. Ken Jackson openly discussed his opposition to the proposal during a recent meeting with the local Board of Education and during a private interview to discuss the proposal.

By definition, SB 603 “creates procedures for open enrollment of public school students across school district boundary lines starting July 1, 2011, if enacted.”

The proposed legislation, Mayer says, “requires the child’s parent or guardian to notify both the home district and the receiving district by Jan. 15 of the preceding school year about the change in enrollment.”

Mayer says of the bill, “I think this bill solves the issues I have seen all too often, such as parents driving out of their way because of erratic district lines or frustration with academic policies.”

According to Mayer, who currently chairs the Appropriations Committee, the bill would require each school district to adopt a policy that outlines what each district determines to be the appropriate class size and teacher-to-student ratios for every grade level, and no school district is required to admit any student if that ratio has been met or exceeded.

“Every denial and transfer allowed would be documented, and if a school is meeting its student-to-teacher ratio, they can opt out of the program,” Mayer says.

The senator from Dexter sees this aspect of the bill as having caused considerable misunderstanding, and in an effort to rectify that, he states, “This bill would not create overcrowded classrooms, or cause any extra burden to any teacher. Every teacher would know the maximum number of children they would have in their classroom, and it would be based on that school district’s policy.”

Many stories on this bill have included quotes from elected officials and educators who fear that overcrowding/loss of student population would be a result of SB603, which is simply not the case. A school will determine their own range of open enrollment transfers. Right now, there is no functioning mechanism for parents to transfer their child to another district, and so the parents and students bear the hardship of outdated boundary lines and a virtually impenetrable transfer policy.

Mayer goes on to illustrate:

“We have over five-hundred school districts in our state. Some are sitting at half-capacity. Some have lost their accreditation. We have children minutes from a neighboring district’s school riding on buses for hours due to archaic district boundary lines. I sponsored this bill because I believe that it will benefit Missouri youth, period.”

Mayer also addresses the sticky wicket of athletics, which some fear would cause open enrollment to be abused:

With open enrollment comes the issue of athletics as well, and Mayer defends the bill with regard to athletic transfers, stating, “The Missouri State High School Activities Association will continue to govern athletics, and students who transfer will have to sit out a year, as they currently do.”

To conclude the article, Mayer rounds up the last of the misinformation:

Regarding the funding issue, Mayer says, “If a student moves from a greater per-pupil funding school to a school that receives less per-pupil funding, some of that funding will travel with the student. If the roles are reversed, then the parents would be required to make up a portion of that difference.”

Mayer says that pupil movement in states currently operating with open enrollment average about 4.7 percent of students utilizing the opportunity to transfer school districts, and he considers that to be “certainly manageable”.

Referring to that percentage, [Dexter Supt. Dr. Ken] Jackson counters, “To pass legislation that is critical to only five percent of students across Missouri right now, well, I just don’t understand the thinking behind this kind of proposal in today’s crucial school economy.”

Jackson also has concerns regarding survival of the smaller, rural school districts and whether they can survive the potential problems that open enrollment may pose.

“I’m not so sure that unforced consolidation is in the back of some people’s minds in this proposal,” he says. “It’s a complicated topic with a lot more to address than where kids want to go to school.”

In somewhat of a surprise announcement late Friday, Mayer said that a provision to the open enrollment bill being considered that will grant each school an option to participate or not participate in open enrollment within their district.

The first reading of the bill was heard in the Senate by Mayer on Jan. 6, 2010. A second reading was heard on Jan. 13, and the bill was then referred to the Education Committee. It was heard in the Education Committee on Feb. 10. A passing vote would send the measure to the full Senate for debate.

The criticism that this bill will cause unmanageable overcrowding AND should not be passed because it applies to a mere 5% of the students population is just plain silly. Why should even a few students languish if we can pass a bill to allow transfer between public school districts? It is not a scary idea, as some have made it out to be. Many children are thriving because of the opportunity to go to a different school, whether because it was closer, had a special education program they would benefit from, or simply because it was an environment that helped them learn. We should not be so protective of the status quo that we sacrifice the legitimate needs of the students we are bound to serve.

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