Open enrollment plan for schools gets pushback, praise from Missouri lawmakers

Rep. Brad Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican and former superintendent of schools there, told the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee his bill is an effort to increase competition and choice while keeping current students within the public school system.

“It’s designed to allow parents to access a better education if they believe that a neighboring district is offering something that their student isn’t exposed to,” Pollitt said.

Until the 2028-2029 school year, his bill allows districts to limit the number of students who can transfer out of their home district to 4% of the district’s previous year’s enrollment.

Districts wouldn’t be required to accept students under the open enrollment program. And, districts wouldn’t be allowed to prevent a student from leaving their home district, with possible exceptions for school districts governed by a desegregation order or a state diversity plan.

This exception may apply to St. Louis Public Schools and if so the district could block students from attending nearby schools in St. Louis County, said Otto Fajen, lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association.

“I believe that if you’ve got a good school district, you don’t have anything to worry about,” Pollitt said. “If you don’t have a good school district, you may have something to worry about.”

Rep. Marlene Terry, a St. Louis County Democrat and former board member of the provisionally accredited Riverview Gardens School District, said she worried the bill would hollow out her community if families were allowed to flee to outside districts.

“We need to fix our funding and not be moving children around from school to school,” she said. “If we continue to take children out of our schools, we have no schools in our community, then we have a community that is just dead.”

Pollitt said the legislation allows the provisionally accredited Hickman Mills School District in Kansas City to restrict transfers out of the district for two years.

“Their representative talked to me about that, gave me evidence that they are working to become accredited,” Pollitt said.

“Well I have faith in my school district as well,” Terry said. “And this is one reason why I cannot accept this bill.”

Pollitt, in response to Rep. Phil Christofanelli, R-St. Peters, said his bill wouldn’t allow students to transfer to charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently of school districts.

“My support for this particular bill is tepid because of the exclusion of certain public schools,” Christofanelli said.

He asked Pollitt what his rationale was for excluding charter schools from the program.

“If you have a public school that is more conservative than your local taxpayers like, or more liberal, then to have a chance to go to another district sends a message that ‘I don’t like this. I’m not going to support this,’” Pollitt said.

“And I would rather do that with the public school establishment we have now, than opening that up to additional buildings and additional staff and additional administration and spread that money out,” Pollitt said.

Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, cautioned lawmakers against “significant changes” to the open enrollment bill. The measure is a priority of House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres.

Haffner noted the “tight” vote on last year’s open enrollment bill, which escaped the House on a narrow 85-66 vote, three more than constitutionally required.

Eighty-three Republicans and two Democrats voted for the bill.

Twenty-two Republicans defected from the majority, joining with most of the Democratic caucus in opposition.

“I am fully supporting your bill,” Haffner said. “If we start to make significant changes to this, it’s going to have a dramatic impact on the ability of this to get across the finish line.”

Lobbyists for the pro-school choice American Federation for Children and the Quality Schools Coalition also voiced support for the bill.

Kyle Kruse, superintendent of the St. Clair School District in Franklin County, predicted that if the legislation became law, at least 100 students would leave the district of 2,065. St. Clair is close to the Pacific, Sullivan, Union and Washington school districts.

Each has higher property values and more money, Kruse said.

“If this bill goes through, we expect to lose 100 or more students,” he said. “Some would go play softball at Sullivan because they have a state-contending team. Some to Union because they have a beautiful gymnasium, some to Pacific because of their weightroom facilities.”

He added younger students would leave due to parent convenience.

“As we’re so state dependent on the funding formula, we lose 100 kids, our have-not district loses about $400,000,” he said. “Where do you lay off teachers? What programs do you cut?”

Under the measure, there would also be a 365-day waiting period for eligibility for student athletes who transfer out of their home districts, in order to help prevent districts from recruiting star athletes, with certain exceptions.

“But if anybody’s sitting in here and doesn’t think that recruiting in sports isn’t going on now in the public school system, you’re not living in the real world,” Pollitt said.

The legislation is House Bill 253.