Latest news with #MissouriIndependent
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3 days ago
- Politics
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Homeschool athletes await Missouri governor's decision on access to public school sports
Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Washington, speaks on the first day of the 2024 Legislative Session. For the past three years, Brown has filed legislation to help homeschoolers gain access to public school activities. This year, the legislature gave its approval (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). A decade of work by lawmakers and activists culminated earlier this month with the legislature sending a bill to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe expanding extracurricular opportunities for homeschool students. The legislation, which has been filed every year in Missouri since 2014, will require public schools to allow homeschooled students in the area to try out for sports teams and other activities beginning in August. Throughout much of the bill's history, it couldn't even get a committee hearing. By 2023, the proposal managed to barely pass a Senate committee in a 5-4 vote, with three Democrats and one Republican opposed. Things changed in February, when it cleared the Senate unanimously — a rarity for the chamber. But then the House made changes to the bill, like prohibiting background checks of homeschooling families that receive money through a private school tax credit program. That change drew the ire of some senators and put the bill's chances in jeopardy. But ultimately, the two chambers worked out a compromise and only three senators ended up voting no. CONTACT US The legislation has had 10 sponsors over the years. Each points to different reasons the bill finally made it to the governor's desk this legislative session, such as unrelenting dedication from homeschooling families and the fervor of this year's sponsor, state Sen. Ben Brown. Brown, a Republican from Washington, told The Independent that 'the stars were aligned' for the bill to pass this year. 'It took a tremendous amount of work, both in the legislature with support from leadership and from the grassroots support,' he said. 'Those were all key factors that just culminated and finally, after more than a decade, ensured that these kids get these opportunities.' State Rep. Josh Hurlbert, a Smithville Republican who sponsored the legislation from 2021 to 2024, gave kudos to homeschooling families that came to Jefferson City to support the legislation. 'Legislators come and go,' he said. 'But it is the families that have been the constant and saw it through.' Hurlbert was a homeschooled student who played soccer in a league of students like him. He sponsored the bill thinking of students in rural areas who don't have access to homeschool leagues, and his young, home-educated children who play in recreational teams with kids educated both in and outside the public school system. His bill passed committee in 2021 and 2022 after families with home-educated children came to testify in favor of the legislation. Some families who submitted testimony in 2021 returned to push for the bill this year. 'We have had so many homeschool families and kids come over through the years to testify and tell their side of the story,' Hurlbert said. 'They really made an impact.' The bill's journey in Missouri began in 2014, when it was first introduced by then-state Rep. Eiljah Haahr. Haahr, a Springfield Republican and homeschool student who went on to become speaker of the Missouri House, participated in a homeschool sports league as a student. 'When I got in the legislature, I was like, 'I don't want kids to be the same way as me, where they want to participate in sports and they don't have an opportunity to do so,'' he told The Independent. The greatest opposition in 2014 came from the Missouri State High School Activities Association, or MSHSAA, which regulates extracurricular activities and sports in public schools. Former state Rep. Kirk Mathews, a Republican from Pacific, picked up the bill after Haahr in 2016. It was not heard in committee that year, and Mathews told The Independent that MSHSAA was a big reason. '(MSHSAA) had enough influence with leadership to have a bill not get advanced through the process,' he said. The legislation continued to languish in 2017, sponsored by former state Rep. Don Rone, a Portageville Republican. He told The Independent that leadership continued to overlook the bill. 'We had some problems back then,' he said, 'and (the bill) just didn't get put on the front burners.' New leadership in both chambers this year showed support for the bill that Brown 'had never seen before.' Senate President Cindy O'Laughlin, a Republican from Shelbina, sponsored the bill in 2022. And current leaders in the House told Brown they liked the legislation, a departure from the resistance he said he faced from the House's former speaker, Dean Plocher. Prior to Plocher's term as speaker, the bill largely moved only in the House. But the Senate version has seen the most activity in the past two years. 'The narrative had kind of flipped over the years,' Hurlbert said. 'The past couple of years, the hardest part was the House.' Other things have changed as well. State lawmakers have been increasingly interested in alternatives to public education, passing and expanding a tax-credit scholarship system benefiting private schools. 'The entire climate towards public education has changed in Missouri over the last couple of years,' Mathews said. 'With school choice being looked upon more favorably.' MSHSAA has been largely quiet about the legislation, saying it would cause 'substantial changes' in a press release but omitting details. The legislation awaits Kehoe's decision on whether to sign it or veto it. If he doesn't take action by July 15, the bill is automatically approved. 'We had days where 50 people showed up from different homeschool families around the state of Missouri,' Brown said. 'To be able to get this done for them, it was probably the most rewarding moment that I've had in my time (in the Senate).' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
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Bipartisan resistance building against Missouri governor's stadium funding plan
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe announces Tuesday that he will call a special legislative session to consider disaster relief, stadium funding and spending items. (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent) Gov. Mike Kehoe's stadium funding plan for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals is facing growing resistance from across the ideological spectrum as lawmakers prepare to return to the Missouri Capitol on Monday. From the right, the Senate Freedom Caucus is threatening a return to procedural gridlock if the agenda for next week's special session doesn't expand to include broad-based tax cuts and changes to the initiative petition process. 'If Gov. Kehoe and legislative leaders insist on using taxpayers' hard-earned dollars for a half billion dollar (or more) handout to billionaire sports team owners in a standalone bill, the Missouri Freedom Caucus will vote against such a proposal and will consider utilizing any tools at its disposal to stop it,' state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, said in a statement on behalf of the four-member Senate Freedom Caucus. From the left, Democrats are seething that the governor's agenda for the special session includes hundreds of millions for stadiums but only $25 million in disaster recovery funds for victims of recent tornadoes in the St. Louis region. 'The conversation can't even begin until serious disaster relief is considered,' said state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat. 'Why do I care about a billionaire's stadium when people have lost their homes? There's absolutely no way we're going to serve a billionaire a feast and leave crumbs for people who just lost their homes. That's not happening.' Complicating all calculations is the Democratic fury over how the regular session ended. Republicans used a rare procedural rule to end debate on controversial bills on abortion and paid sick leave. Democrats promised the Senate would not function normally until they feel they can trust the GOP to work towards compromise. On Thursday, Democrats showed just how disruptive they could be when Webber halted the routine work of signing bills from the regular session by noting that the chamber lacked a quorum because a majority of senators were not present. The Senate was stuck as it waited for GOP legislators to make the unplanned trip to Jefferson City from their homes for what was supposed to be a largely ceremonial day. Then Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat, made a motion to adjourn the session for the year. Without voting on that motion, Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican, adjourned the Senate until Friday so more members could be rounded up. The day ended in shouting, with Webber accusing his GOP colleagues of violating the chamber's rules by ignoring Beck's motion and moving forward to adjourn even though there was no quorum. 'You're a coward,' Webber yelled as the session was gaveled to a close. 'You know that was against the rules and you did it anyway.' The tension on display Thursday doesn't bode well for next week's special session. 'It's not coming together just swimmingly as of right now,' said state Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. A decade after losing an NFL team, Missouri lawmakers set to debate stadium funding plan The delaying action Thursday was about how the regular session ended, Beck said in an interview. He said he hasn't had enough conversations with members of his caucus to decide tactics for the special session. 'The only part of the special session I think would be critical would be trying to get some relief for the people of the city of St Louis after the tornado,' Beck said. 'There's some hard feelings out there about how things happened. There's also a feeling of like the amount of aid that they've offered is kind of a slap in the face.' On Tuesday, Kehoe announced he was calling the legislature back into session to approve $25 million in disaster recovery funds and a little over $200 million in construction projects that failed to win House approval during the regular session. But the highest profile piece of Kehoe's special session agenda is his plan for the state to pay up to half the costs of a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals and renovations to Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs — projects estimated to cost up to $3 billion. Both teams have expressed interest in leaving Missouri when the lease on their current stadiums expire in 2030, and Kansas lawmakers have put a deal on the table that would use state incentives to pay for up to 70% of the costs of new stadiums. Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins told The Kansas City Star on Thursday that if the Chiefs or Royals are interested in leaving Missouri, they should act on the state's offer soon before the deal expires at the end of June. Kehoe argues that the cost to keep the teams in the state would be less than what Missouri stands to lose if either team leaves the state. He claims the economic activity associated with the Chiefs supports 4,500 jobs, while a new stadium for the Royals would generate about 8,400 jobs. But while the proposal easily cleared the Missouri House in the legislative session's final days, it died in the Senate. A bipartisan filibuster derailed its progress, with complaints ranging from the price tag to the lack of legislative input on the plan. Senators also complained that stadium funding was taking precedence over $500 million in construction projects killed by the House days earlier that would have funded eight hospitals around the state, supported a new nuclear reactor at the University of Missouri to make cancer treatments and a new mental health hospital in Kansas City. How opposition in the Senate plays out — the Senate will take up the special session bills first because of anticipated difficulty — will decide what the House can do. State Rep. Doug Clemens, a Democrat from St. Ann, applauded the moves Thursday to disrupt the normally routine Senate action. 'It's high time that Democrats dig their heels in and I support this,' Clemens said. 'The governor needs to sit down and negotiate with Senate Democrats if we're going to change things we're going to make government work for the people.' House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Republican from Lee's Summit said he's ready to act on Kehoe's package but knows things could change. 'This is politics and negotiating is all part of it,' Patterson said. 'There may be negotiations ahead but we will take a look at the current package and move ahead.' House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, said she's generally supportive of the items Kehoe is requesting but would like to see more for disaster aid and construction spending. What happens in the Senate, she said, is the key to the special session. 'The tenor in the Senate is probably going to dictate a lot of what happens,' Aune said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Kehoe's special session agenda includes very little of the construction budget spending, creating blowback. Instead of $50 million originally slated for the University of Missouri nuclear reactor, the governor called for only $25 million. 'The governor's office gave me their word on $50 million, and I expect not one penny less than that,' Webber said. 'I'm genuinely perplexed why they would give me their word then go back on it. I didn't play games with them, and I don't understand why they are playing games with my district.' Hough also said the capital construction bill should spend more. And he questions whether the state should start paying for disaster recovery in cases where FEMA is not participating. The $25 million proposal, he said, 'is kind of like a drop in the bucket. That's also why the state doesn't do disaster payments, generally, because we don't have a printing press like the feds.' Republicans hold a super majority in the Senate — 24 of 34 seats. But it's unclear if there are 18 GOP votes in support of Kehoe's stadium plan, meaning Democratic support may be crucial. Kehoe has a big hammer to sway votes — there are 248 items added to the budget by lawmakers at a cost of $550 million that are in bills awaiting his action. Kehoe has the power to veto any item from the budget he doesn't like. 'I've got members calling me saying, is he gonna veto my stuff?' Hough said. Kehoe will have to use every bit of his political skills to win passage of the special session package. 'The easiest way to frame this, from my perspective right now, is that there's an awful lot of negotiation still yet to be done,' Hough said. 'It's just not as simple as everyone's going to show back up after the way the session ended.' A spokeswoman for the governor said he 'respects the legislative process and hopes that legislators will work together to deliver on the time-sensitive issues in his call for the special session.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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4 days ago
- Business
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Capitol Perspectives: Memories of the late Missouri Gov. Kit Bond
Officers carry the casket of former U.S. Senator and Governor Christopher S. 'Kit' Bond into the Missouri State Capitol on May 20 to begin a memorial service (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Christopher 'Kit' Bond's death brought very deep memories for me about a governor I have missed since he left the office in 1985. My strongest memory of Bond was his pursuit as the Republican gubernatorial candidate to replace the Democratic governor who controlled a legislature dominated by Democrats. He began his election campaign critical of Democrats, until, as I was told, Republican Attorney General Jack Danforth advised Bond to put more focus on issues of importance to Missourians. I suspect that was a factor in Bond's subsequent policy-focused agenda, which led his lasting legacy and the frequent description of Bond as a moderate. Bond's successful agenda included consumer protection, campaign finance disclosure requirements, expanding education programs for children, the Sunshine Law providing public access to government records and reforming state government hiring. Bond's focus on consumer protection issues was not surprising since he served as Danforth's consumer protection director. Bond went further in his bipartisan approach, crossing conservative Republican lines when he supported Missouri ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (which ultimately failed). His cross-party agenda came under dramatic attack from a few fellow statehouse Republicans. The most vivid demonstration of the split between Bond and his party came from long-time Carthage Republican state Sen. Richard Webster. Angered by some of Bond's gubernatorial staff and proposals, Webster attacked Bond's staff on the Senate floor. Webster coined the phrase 'kiddie corps,' which he used in his Senate attacks to describe Bond's staff as brash younger folks, not sufficiently conservative for Webster. Webster's attack reflected the views from some Republicans who had hoped for a new Republican-focused conservative agenda without a Democratic governor. It was not to be. I do not recall Bond ever wavering from his agenda. Instead, Bond pursued issues that could win bipartisan support, including moderate Senate Republicans. I still miss that era when a partnership with Bond, Democrats and moderate Republicans dominated public policy in the legislature. Bond demonstrated his cross-party support for major issues when, after leaving the U.S. Senate, he returned to state government on behalf the Missouri Chamber of Commerce to support Medicaid expansion. Facing stiff statehouse GOP opposition, Bond's efforts failed in the legislature. But it was eventually enacted by initiative petition. But it was another demonstration about how Bond could cross ideological and political boundaries for an issue he felt was important for our state.
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4 days ago
- Health
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Kansas abortion clinics could take on more patients in Missouri ban fallout
The Planned Parenthood office on June 24, 2022, in St. Louis. (Tessa Weinberg/Missouri Independent) TOPEKA — A total abortion ban is back in Missouri, and for Kansas clinics, that could mean added strain on a system that already serves as a regional safe haven. Two recent rulings from a lower court judge allowed Missourians to receive abortion care in major cities, blocking years of restrictions implemented by state lawmakers. Those rulings came after voter approval of a constitutional amendment in November enshrining reproductive freedom in the state constitution. All of that was undone in a two-page ruling Tuesday from Chief Justice Mary Russell of the Missouri Supreme Court, which ordered Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang to vacate the December and February decisions and reevaluate the case, restoring a ban on abortions and facility licensing restrictions. Missourians have a constitutional right to reproductive freedom in name only, said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains. She called the Tuesday ruling surprising but added that the organization is accustomed to having to pivot because of court cases and politics. Planned Parenthood Great Plains has clinics on both sides of the state line, so the impacts of the court's ruling are widespread for the organization. On the Missouri side, appointment times are being canceled, and care will become scarcer if the ruling remains in place, Wales said. On the Kansas side, the ruling means adding more appointment times and stretching providers to offer care to an entire region. Kansas abortion clinics serve mostly out-of-state patients, which has been attributed to its strong reproductive freedoms and its proximity to Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, where residents must seek care away from home. 'Having so few providers to support an entire region is not a sustainable system,' Wales said. The ruling is a continuation of notoriously difficult-to-access care in Missouri, said Isabel Guarnieri, communications director for the Guttmacher Institute, a health policy research and advocacy organization. 'As of now, the total ban is back in effect, along with other restrictions that force patients to wait and receive counseling before obtaining an abortion and (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws that make it difficult for clinics to operate,' Guarnieri said in a Wednesday press release. In 2023, with Missouri's ban in effect, almost 3,000 Missourians traveled to Kansas for an abortion. More than 8,700 traveled to Illinois. Wales said Planned Parenthood had been hopeful that Missouri's restoration of access to abortion could have offered Kansas clinics breathing room. 'We know that the demand for the region outpaces what we can provide,' she said. And that only applies to those who can access care. Without local abortion access, Wales said, people without the ability to travel for care will be left behind. Missouri lawmakers intend to put another ballot measure before voters, likely in the 2026 general election, that would overturn the November amendment establishing reproductive freedom in the state constitution. Kansas Republicans have taken a more roundabout approach in presenting to voters an August 2026 referendum on the state Supreme Court justice selection process. Electing state Supreme Court justices by popular vote could give the majority a conservative tilt, paving the way for the reversal of decisions that protect abortion, public school funding and legislative districts, among others. Attorneys general from Kansas, Missouri and Idaho are involved in a federal lawsuit seeking to rewrite federal prescribing guidelines for medication abortions. The Trump administration has asked the court to dismiss the suit.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
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Missouri Supreme Court reinstates abortion restrictions, imposing ‘de-facto' ban
The Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a judge in Kansas City to lift an injunction that had blocked restrictions on abortion, a ruling that upends access to the procedure six months after voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state Constitution. The two-page order imposes a 'de facto abortion ban' in the state, according to the leaders of the state's two Planned Parenthood affiliates. Over the course of two rulings — one in December and one in February — Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang pointed to the voter-approved constitutional amendment in issuing a temporary injunction blocking abortion restrictions enacted over numerous years by state lawmakers. Most notably, Zhang struck down licensing requirement for abortion clinics, arguing the regulations were 'unnecessary' and 'discriminatory' because they do not treat services provided in abortion facilities the same as other types of similarly situated health care, including miscarriage care. The injunction allowed abortions in the state to resume while the case made its way to a January 2026 trial. Missouri clinics will 'immediately' offer abortion across the state after judge's ruling On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court determined Zhang applied the wrong standard in rulings, ordering her to vacate her earlier orders and re-evaluate the case using the standards the court laid out. That leaves the door open for Zhang to potentially implement another injunction. Tom Bastian, spokesman for the Missouri ACLU, painted Tuesday's ruling as only a temporary setback. His organization believes its arguments for halting restrictions met the standard set by the Supreme Court and expects Zhang will grant another injunction 'blocking the ban and restrictions, once again allowing Missourians access to abortion care.' Despite the potential ambiguity, Republicans celebrated the Supreme Court ruling. 'Today's decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message – abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements,' Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in an emailed statement. Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. and Margot Riphagen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, released a statement decrying the ruling as putting Missouri 'back under a de facto abortion ban and is devastating for Missourians and the providers they trust with their personal health care decisions.' A decade ago, more than 5,000 abortions were performed in Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. By 2020, when abortions were still legal, that number fell to 167, a drop that abortion providers attributed to the state's growing list of regulations. Missouri's trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into effect the same day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Last November, Missourians narrowly approved Amendment 3, which states, in part, that 'the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.' Earlier this month, the GOP supermajority placed a new constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot that would reinstate the abortion ban with limited exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest.
