Missouri school accreditation bill passes Senate for first time after three years
Sen. Jill Carter, a Republican from Granby, sits at her desk on the Senate floor. Carter has filed a bill for three consecutive years on school accreditation and accountability (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
The Missouri Senate sent a bill to the House Thursday that would overhaul the state's accreditation and accountability system in order to give local school districts more control.
State Sen. Jill Carter, a Republican from Granby, has filed the bill for three consecutive years and garnered approval for public-school advocates in committee. But each year it has been passed over for other priorities when it reached the full Senate.
Skepticism from state Sen. Curtis Trent, a Republican from Springfield, slowed the bill's passage this year and inspired a lengthy debate about accountability earlier this month.
But Monday, he applauded Carter for 'helping work through the concerns that I had.'
Carter tweaked the legislation Monday to clarify sections and add an expiration date to a provision limiting the State Board of Education's authority to classify districts.
It was approved by the Senate Thursday on a 32 to one vote, with Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman as the only opponent.
If the bill passes the House, school districts will be able to seek accreditation from national accreditation agencies in addition to the State Board of Education. The board can classify districts without outside accreditation as provisionally accredited or unaccredited only for the purpose of determining whether a charter school can open within a district's boundaries. State law allows charters to open the area of unaccredited districts and those that have been provisionally accredited for at least three years.
Carter's legislation also requires schools to post performance data on their websites. Previous versions of the bill specified the data would be sent to 'media outlets serving the district.'
It also changes a requirement for 'interim assessments' at the beginning and end of the school year to 'local assessments' without specified times.
Carter believes the legislation would give school boards and parents more power over curriculum and personalize learning to a district's needs.
'I think this is a first step in trying to mitigate a lot of the concerns that we've had and educators have had in our public schools,' she said Monday.
There is just under a month remaining in the current legislative session. If Carter's bill doesn't pass the House in coming weeks, she will have to start over in the process next year.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon will lose fight with Trump, Musk's father tells Russia
Credit: Tsargrad TV Elon Musk will lose his fight with Donald Trump and made a 'mistake' by challenging him, his father has said. Speaking at a political conference in Moscow, Errol Musk claimed his billionaire son was suffering 'PTSD from the White House' and blamed his row with the US president on 'stress'. 'Trump will prevail – he's the president, he was elected as the president. So, you know, Elon made a mistake, I think. But he is tired, he is stressed,' he told Russian media. Last week, Elon Musk and Mr Trump traded insults after the Tesla chief executive denounced the president's sweeping new tax and spending Bill as 'a disgusting abomination'. He also called for the president's impeachment and claimed the Republican was 'in the Epstein files' – US government intelligence documents on Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile financier. In response, Mr Trump threatened to cancel US government contracts with Mr Musk's companies, which include SpaceX. Errol Musk told Izvestia, a Russian daily newspaper: 'You know they have been under a lot of stress for five months – you know – give them a break. 'They are very tired and stressed, so you can expect something like this.' Despite the pair's war of words, Mr Musk said he still believed his son's relationship with the president could be mended, describing the row as 'just a small thing' that would 'be over tomorrow'. He made the comments during an appearance at Future Forum 2050, a conference attended by Kremlin heavyweights and led by Alexander Dugin, a Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher often described as Vladimir Putin's 'brain'. Errol Musk was also pictured sitting next to Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister. At one point he praised Putin as a 'very stable and pleasant man' and blamed Western media for projecting 'nonsense' about Russia. It came as Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump's former chief strategist, claimed that in April Elon Musk had a physical altercation with Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, down the corridor from the Oval Office. Mr Bannon said: 'President Trump heard about it and said: 'This is too much,'' according to The Washington Post. A source told the newspaper that concerns were also raised over Mr Musk's alleged drug use. Mr Musk, the world's richest man, helped bankroll Mr Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. He was then hired to head the new Department of Government Efficiency, controversially tasked with downsizing the federal workforce and slashing spending. The tech entrepreneur stepped back from the role late last month, ending a turbulent 130-day stint in the administration. On Saturday, the US president said his relationship with Mr Musk was over, and warned there would be 'serious consequences' if Mr Musk switched his allegiance to the Democrats and funded rival candidates. Credit: Reuters Delighting in the row, Russian MPs have offered political asylum to the South African-born businessman. Last week, Dmitry Novikov, the deputy chairman of the state Duma committee on international affairs, said Moscow would welcome him to the country 'if he needs it'. Senior Putin allies have also mockingly offered to help mediate between the two men. 'We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!' said Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, referring to Mr Musk's satellite internet network. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House budget request slashes funding for tribal colleges and universities
In President Donald Trump's budget request, he's proposing slashing funding for tribal colleges and universities, including eliminating support for the country's only federally funded college for contemporary Native American arts. If the budget is approved by Congress, beginning in October, the more than $13 million in annual appropriations for the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, would be reduced to zero. It would be the first time in nearly 40 years that the congressionally chartered school would not receive federal support, said Robert Martin, the school's president. 'You can't wipe out 63 years of our history and what we've accomplished with one budget,' Martin said on Friday. 'I just can't understand or comprehend why they would do something like this.' The college, founded in 1962, has provided affordable education to thousands of Native artists and culture bearers, including U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo, painter T.C. Cannon and bestselling novelist Tommy Orange. It's the only four-year degree fine arts institution in the world devoted to contemporary Native American and Alaskan Native arts, according to its website. Martin said he has spoken with members of Congress from both major political parties who have assured him they'll work to keep the institute's budget level for the next fiscal year, but he worries the morale of students and staff will be affected. Martin said he also spoke with staff in the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Cole, a Republican and former member of IAIA's board of trustees and a longtime advocate in Congress for funding that supports tribal citizens, was unavailable for comment. Breana Brave Heart, a junior studying arts and business, said the proposal shocked her and made her wonder: 'Will I be able to continue my education at IAIA with these budget cuts?' Brave Heart said she started organizing with other students to contact members of Congress. 'IAIA is under attack," she said, "and I need other students to know this.' Martin said that amid the Republican Trump administration's crackdown on federal policies and funding that support diversity, equity and inclusion, trust responsibilities and treaty rights owed to tribal nations have also come under attack. 'It's a problem for us and many other organizations when you've got that DEI initiative which really is not applicable to us, because we're not a racial category, we're a political status as a result of the treaties," he said. 'We're easily identified as what this administration might refer to as a 'woke'.' Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico said the cuts are another example of the Trump administration 'turning its back on Native communities and breaking our trust responsibilities.' "As a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, I remain committed to keeping IAIA fully funded and will continue working with appropriators and the New Mexico Congressional Delegation to ensure its future,' Luján said in a statement to The Associated Press. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The congressional budget bill includes roughly $3.75 trillion in tax cuts, extending the expiring 2017 individual income tax breaks and temporarily adding new ones that Trump campaigned on. The revenue loss would be partially offset by nearly $1.3 trillion in reduced federal spending elsewhere, namely through Medicaid and food assistance. A Jan. 30 order from the Interior Department titled 'Ending DEI Programs and Gender Ideology Extremism' stated that any efforts to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion in the department's policy should exclude trust obligations to tribal nations. However, earlier this year, several staff members at the other two congressionally chartered schools in the country — the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas — were laid off as part of Trump's push to downsize the federal workforce. In a lawsuit filed in March, both institutions reported that some staff and faculty were rehired, but the Bureau of Indian Education notified those people that might be temporary and they may be laid off again. 'It shows what a president's values and priorities are, and that's been hard,' said Ahniwake Rose, president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, an organization that represents more than 30 Tribal Colleges and Universities. "That's been hard for our staff, our students, our faculty to see that the priority of the administration through the Department of Interior might not be on tribal colleges." In its budget request this year, the Interior Department is proposing reducing funding to the BIE's post secondary programs by more than 80%, and that would have a devastating affect on tribal colleges and universities, or TCUs, which rely on the federal government for most of their funding, said Rose. Most TCUs offer tribal citizens a tuition-free higher education, she said, and funding them is a moral and fiduciary responsibility the federal government owes tribal nations. In the many treaties the U.S. signed with tribal nations, it outlined several rights owed to them — like land rights, health care and education through departments established later, like the BIE. Trust responsibilities are the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold those rights. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
GOP leadership unleashes fury on Dem governor ahead of blockbuster congressional hearing
FIRST ON FOX: House Republican leadership slammed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz ahead of a blockbuster congressional hearing addressing sanctuary city policy this week. GOP Whip and Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer wished Walz "good luck" before the former vice presidential candidate is set to testify alongside Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday. "From hurling outrageous insults against ICE agents to offering a multitude of taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens in Minnesota, Tim Walz's immigration agenda can be summed up easily: pro-illegal alien, anti-Minnesotan," GOP Whip Emmer told Fox News Digital. "If Tim Walz thinks he will be able to defend his abysmal record before Congress, then he's even more of a buffoon than I thought. I only have one thing to say to Timmy as he heads to Washington this week: GOOD LUCK." Handful Of House Democrats Join Republicans In Sanctuary City Crackdown Emmer paired his comments to Fox News Digital with a new video slamming Walz's various immigration policies titled "Protecting Illegals, Not Minnesotans: That's the Walz Way." Read On The Fox News App The three "sanctuary governors" will face a barrage of questions from members of the committee this week, as anti-ICE riots raged in Los Angeles over the weekend and the Trump administration continues to ramp up deportations across the country. Though the term "sanctuary city" is not legally defined, illegal immigrants will flock to the mainly Democrat-led regions to reduce the likelihood of deportation. Sanctuary cities often refuse Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests for information, like arrests or releases, and typically deny ICE detainer requests to hold jailed illegal migrants beyond their release date. California Republicans Slam Newsom, Bass For Letting La Burn With Riots Amid Trump Immigration Blitz House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, said in a media advisory for the upcoming hearing that "The governors of these states must explain why they are prioritizing the protection of criminal illegal aliens over the safety of U.S. citizens." "Sanctuary policies only provide sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens." Comer explained. "Former President Biden created the worst border crisis in U.S. history and allowed criminal illegal aliens to flood our communities." "The Trump Administration is taking decisive action to deport criminal illegal aliens from our nation but reckless sanctuary states like Illinois, Minnesota, and New York are actively seeking to obstruct federal immigration enforcement." 'Sick Puppy' Tim Walz Should Never Have Been On Dems' 2024 Ticket, Trump Says The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 12 at 10 a.m. ET. Fox News Digital reached out to Walz but did not receive a article source: GOP leadership unleashes fury on Dem governor ahead of blockbuster congressional hearing
