Latest news with #MissouriSenateEducationCommittee
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missouri senators seek to bar kids from accessing pornographic materials from libraries
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman discusses legislation during a House committee hearing in 2024 (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent). The Missouri Senate Education Committee discussed legislation Tuesday seeking to ban materials deemed explicit from digital libraries and hold library boards responsible for the content made available to minors. State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, filed legislation applying safety measures to 'digital library catalogs' after hearing about explicit material available on a state-subsidized application used by public schools. Her bill adopts the state's current definition of 'pornographic for minors,' which includes 'has a tendency to cater or appeal to a prurient interest of minors.' Sora, an app school districts provide to students through a program run by the Missouri Secretary of State, allows students to check out books digitally. But Coleman said some resources have inappropriate content and link out to explicit material. 'It provides access to a really broad variety of titles, many of which are fantastic, and allows educators to provide books they otherwise couldn't afford,' Coleman said. 'Unfortunately, there are a lot of other materials that are available, including sexually explicit material.' She contacted both the Secretary of State's office and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education last year. Both told her it was a problem for school boards to handle. Since 2003, libraries have been responsible for blocking access to pornographic content on their computers and internet terminals. Coleman's bill would add digital resources, which can be accessed from home, to the existing statute and create accountability measures. Schools would have to publish a list of required reading materials on their websites and allow parents access to digital library resources. Parents would be able to challenge resources as inappropriate, with results of such claims available online. They could sue school personnel, including librarians, for not following the law as a result of 'gross negligence' or intentional conduct. Coleman said school districts should stop using Sora if they cannot thoroughly monitor its catalog. Mary Catherine Martin, an attorney with conservative law firm Thomas More Society, said she helped draft the legislation to put the onus on schools. 'What we need is an enforcement mechanism that requires school districts to get ahead (of the content) and gives them the obligation of screening things before they hand them to the children,' she said. State Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican and chair of the education committee, said some content is 'definitely not G-rated.' 'To me this is no different than if a school district just left a gun laying somewhere and then wants to act dumb,' he said. The committee also heard a bill sponsored by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance, that would hold library board members accountable for material accessible to children. The bill would add board members to a 2022 law that makes providing explicit sexual material to a minor a class A misdemeanor. When the law was passed in 2022, some expressed concerns that it would lead to 'book banning' and suppression of LGBTQ+ literature. Schroer said his bill would 'protect the innocence and integrity of children's learning environment.' The legislation would keep the existing definition of explicit sexual material, which only applies to visual material. Brattin, who helped draft the bill, said it didn't include literature because of opposition. 'I think this is just a common sense approach to things,' he said. The American Library Association included Schroer's legislation in a list of 98 'adverse' bills. The organization noted a legislative push in recent years to 'impair' librarians from providing diverse materials. These bills come less than two years after a rule by former Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft that requires libraries to create policies preventing minors from accessing obscene materials. Thousands of public comments opposed the rule, calling it censorship. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri child care subsidy payment backlog will be resolved next month, commissioner says
Missouri Commissioner of Education updates the Senate Education Committee on department activity and answers questions Tuesday morning (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). A backlog of payments due to child care providers is 70% clear after a year-long struggle with the state's new software, Missouri Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger told lawmakers Tuesday morning. The Missouri Senate Education Committee questioned Eslinger about everything from school accreditation to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Standing out among the interrogation was an update on the child care subsidy administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. CONTACT US 'I want to lift up a 'hallelujah' that the calculator in the system is fixed. So that is a huge, huge lift,' Eslinger told the committee. 'It's something that I was not able to say for probably four or five months that I sat in this chair.' The department changed its software vendor in December of 2023, and both providers and families enrolling in the program began noticing issues tracking and receiving payment. Some child care centers closed and others turned away families using the subsidy program during months of missed payments. State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City, said day cares in her area have contacted her about missed payments. One provider told her, 'I'm taking out mortgages. I'm literally doing everything to keep this facility afloat. These kids need this,' she said, adding that the facility later closed. Eslinger said the department has spent 'over $200 million sending out support to those providers.' There is a remaining '25% or so' of the backlog in payments that has still yet to be resolved, with some issues reaching back a year. Everyone should be paid up by the end of February, she predicted. Kari Monsees, commissioner of financial and administrative services, nodded in agreement. Eslinger added that the system of paying on attendance is not working, saying she hopes to shift to paying providers based on enrollment in the future. While Eslinger spoke to the Senate Education Committee, a House committee heard a proposal to create tax credit programs to expand and fund child care. The bill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph, said the legislation would support the workforce. Around 60% of Missouri businesses reported that child care was a barrier in recruiting new employees, she told committee members. One of the proposed programs would give taxpayers a 75% tax credit for donations made to child care providers. Another incentivizes businesses to provide or help fund child care, and the last would give a 30% tax credit on improvements providers make and refund withholding tax. Shield said 94 of Missouri's 114 counties qualify as child care deserts, meaning there is one day care slot for every three children under the age of five. 'Child care is as important of infrastructure as roads and bridges and everything else that we talk about,' she said. The Senate committee also asked Eslinger about St. Louis Public Schools, which has been under fire as its administration regroups after the investigation and ousting of its former superintendent. The district's interim superintendent and school board president stepped up to answer questions as well Tuesday, saying they have instituted a new reading program among other changes. 'There is a program that has been introduced that totally has changed the narrative on the way that our teachers, families and parents are learning and teaching our children how to read,' Toni Cousins, SLPS school board president said. And 'that has shown growth in our reading.' The district also reported it has begun preparing for a new transportation contract next year, opening up the proposal process in November and hearing presentations from bussing companies this month. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
