The top leaders of Missouri's legislature cited education funding as the "must-pass" issue for the 2012 session in interviews before the start of the legislative session.
"I've been here eight years and every year that we try to fix the broken schools with a different idea and all you hear is 'no.' And what ends up happening is that we get the status quo and we shuffle thousands of kids through failing schools," House Speaker Steve Tilley said in an interview the day before the start of the legislative session.
Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer was just as forceful. "We must also address the revolving door of dropouts and failed policies in our state's two largest school districts: St. Louis and Kansas City. Both have a decades-old cycle of failing their students," Mayer said in an address to the Senate on the legislature's opening day.
Under state law, children in those unaccredited districts have the right to attend schools in any other district -- an issue that has raised concerns from St. Louis County school districts.
One alternative idea proposed in the Senate would to split up one or both of the urban districts among the outlying, accredited suburban districts.
Other lawmakers have proposed alternatives to public schools for students in the unaccredited districts.
On the first day of the session, Tilley added some school-choice proponents to the House Education Committee.
But the "school choice" or "voucher" idea was rejected decisively by the House in the past.
In 2007, the House defeated a proposal pushed by then-Gov. Matt Blunt to provide tax credits for parents in St. Louis and Kansas City to send their children to private schools.
The House Education Committee Chair, Maynard Wallace, R-Thornfield, a former school superintendent and principal, was among the opponents. More than one-third of the House Republicans along with an overwhelming majority of Democrats voted against the Republican governor's plan.
Also facing the state lawmakers is a problem funding the School Foundation Formula, which allocates funds among local school districts.
The goal of the formula, to equalize per-student spending among school districts, has failed because the state has been unable to sustain the level of funding increases required to achieve that goal.
Past efforts to fix the formula have run into opposition from legislators representing richer districts that would suffer state funding reductions in order to shift money to poorer districts.
A group of lawmakers has been working on crafting a new approach. However Mayer conceded that some opposition remains in his chamber's GOP caucus.
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