The February 26th issue of the Maryville Forum reported on a contentious hearing in St. Joseph between Senator Rusty Black and school principals regarding school funding. In that meeting, Sen. Black did not give satisfactory answers regarding the possible elimination of the Hold Harmless Clause.
The Missouri Hold Harmless Clause states that small schools in Missouri can never go below their aid levels in 2004-05 or 2005-06 based on district size. If the current foundation formula calculation produces a lower number than the 2004-05 levels for small districts with average daily attendance under 350, then the state discards it and pays the higher “hold harmless” amount instead.
Currently, Mr. Black chairs the Missouri Modernization Task Force, which is tasked with updating the Foundation Formula. One of the proposals being talked about is getting rid of the Hold Harmless Clause. But North Nodaway school superintendent Chris Turpin reported to the board at a board meeting that North Nodaway stood to lose over $700,000 a year if the change is implemented. This is more than the revenue generated by the wind farms west of Hopkins. Worth County Superintendent Chris Healy told the Express in an interview that Worth County stood to lose at least $300,000 a year if Hold Harmless is eliminated. Many schools in the area stand to lose even more.
Other changes proposed include raising the Adequacy Target from $7,000 to as high as $11,000. This area serves a high number of disadvantaged students and increases to account for them could offset getting rid of Hold Harmless, but how much is anybody’s guess.
Mr. Black complained at the meeting about the heat that he had received both from educators and from people on the street. But that is because we are not being given straight answers. If Mr. Turpin and Mr. Healy’s figures are wrong, then we want to know what the correct figures are, what is in these plans to offset the cuts from getting rid of Hold Harmless, and what schools can do to raise funds. Currently, Worth County is in a better position than a lot of schools because a $1.25 levy, which is needed to offset getting rid of Hold Harmless, requires a simple majority to pass. But many schools would require a two-thirds majority to keep the doors open or avoid having to make ghastly cuts that would put children at risk. And Missouri voters already pay some of the highest shares of money as any state in the country.
In the story, Mr. Black told the Forum that he had been approached by certain people asking why some schools were still open with so few students. As a resident of Sheridan, whose school was closed in 1976 and consolidated with Worth County, I would submit that the cure is worse than the disease. Closing a school in a town like Sheridan guts the local economy, creates abandoned buildings, and drives people and businesses out of town. Community leaders tried to keep up maintenance of the school building in Sheridan and kept it open as a community center for many years. But finally, they no longer had the resources to do so, and the building was finally torn down last year. If getting rid of the Hold Harmless Clause guts school funding as badly as school administrators say it does, then what happened in Sheridan will replicate itself in many other towns much bigger than Sheridan.
