Missouri school choice has momentum, but Republican lawmakers are still divided

The Missouri House on Thursday narrowly passed a voucher-like school choice program mainly for Kansas City and St. Louis students, while Republicans in the state Senate attempted to get support for a more sweeping measure.

The bill, creating $50 million a year in tax credits to pay for Missouri students to attend private schools, got the minimum 82 votes needed to pass. It moved through the chamber swiftly this week as the session’s top priority for House Speaker Rob Vescovo.

The Arnold Republican made a rare and passionate floor speech to urge its passage, excoriating opposing colleagues for siding with “special interests” such as teachers’ unions, which have decried the measure as a move that would siphon money from public school systems.

Vescovo has made clear the matter is personal, saying he dropped out of school at age 16 and “nothing has changed” to improve educational opportunities for Missouri students.

“I don’t want to hear any more about, ‘Oh my gosh, my kids. Look at the virus,’” he said. “My kids have had so limited amounts of school since March. None of you who vote against this bill get to talk about that ever again. Never.”

Advocates seized on this legislative session as an opportunity to push for long-sought school choice measures. They had hoped to benefit from a pandemic-fueled increase in parental frustration with public schools, some of which have remained virtual. They have promoted the tax credit program as a way for low-and-middle income families to have the same opportunity as the well-off to choose better schooling options.

Though the measures gained momentum this year, the narrow passage of the House bill — and stalling of a proposal on the Senate floor this week — indicate they are still not universally popular among Republicans, who dominate both chambers.

The House bill is estimated to allow more than 7,000 students leave public schools in the state’s most populated areas. After five years, school districts would no longer receive those students’ funding. Opponents have said the measure would leave those who remain behind in public schools in an underinvested system.

Originally proposed for low-income students statewide, the plan was changed this week to target urban areas, outraging Kansas City and St. Louis Democrats who said their families and school systems were being forced into an educational “experiment.”

“If you think this bill does not help your community just imagine what it does to mine,” Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Ferguson Democrat.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republican leaders said Thursday that they still want to make changes to their own school choice package.

After filibustering for nearly 12 hours Tuesday night, the Senate tabled the package that includes the tax credit scholarship program and an expansion of places in Missouri where charter schools are allowed.

That measure contains numerous other proposals and Majority Floor Leader Caleb Rowden, a Boone County Republican, said “there are still some compromises to be had.”

He dodged suggestions that Senators had tried to put too many measures in one bill.

“Anytime you have a bill that big, of that magnitude and specifically on the issue of education you’ve got to do a little extra work,” he said.