If private schools accept public money, they should be held accountable to taxpayers, Ghan said.
Tax credits part of bill
Related to private schools, the bill would create up to $100 million in tax credits for donations to an organization that provides scholarships for students to attend a private school or home school.
In addition to the recall provision for local school board members, the bill would also limit state board of education members to one term.
Ghan said he s not sure about the strategy of loading so many things into one bill. It could give some legislators something to vote against, but it also could appeal to enough members to pass.
A bill with charter school expansion, public funding of private schools and home schools, and nearly everything else officials and advocates of traditional public schools don t want could come up for debate on the floor of the Missouri Senate at any time.
Bills like this one are introduced every year and so far have been unsuccessful, but like so many other things, this year may be different.
Among its provisions, the bill would expand charter schools beyond St. Louis and Kansas City to allow them to be established in towns with populations over 30,000 and charter counties.
It would create tax credits allowing donations to an organization that provides scholarships for students to attend private school or home school.
School choice bills have been pushed in Missouri for years. Will the pandemic pave the way?
By Tessa Weinberg
Yet despite massive GOP majorities in both the House and the Senate, they often fall short.
Since the expansion of charter schools into unaccredited districts in 2012, attempts to push through education reform have crashed into a wall of resistance year after year resistance that spans across political, ideological and geographic lines.
Now the top Republicans in both the Missouri House and Senate have once again declared school choice a top priority, fast tracking bills that would expand charter schools statewide and establish scholarship accounts that could be used toward things like private school tuition.
Missouri bills target school boards, county commissioners for recalls
By Rudi Keller
As public schools prepared to reopen last summer, local school boards chose between in-person learning, online instruction or a blend of the two.
Many heard often from parents, who at times gathered to protest. Some wanted a delayed opening or virtual learning. Some demanded in-person classwork.
The agitation didn’t stop as the year progressed. In Columbia, for example, parents frustrated with online instruction organized in late September to push for a return to school buildings. The district did bring elementary students to classrooms in October, but reverted to virtual education early in November as coronavirus case numbers rose.