Tell Your Senator To Vote "NO" On Right To Work!

Speak Out -- Call Your Elected Officials

Speak Out! Call Your Elected Officials.

Missouri's working families and our Unions are under attack in Jefferson City.  The Missouri House made the irresponsible decision to pass Right to Work (for Less) and moved it forward to the Senate; where debate began Monday 1/23/17. Listen now.

This extreme measure hurts workers and job development. In the past 12 months, Missouri has created more jobs than ALL SEVEN of our neighboring states that passed Right to Work.

Please call your Missouri State Senator’s office and ask them to vote NO on Right to Work!  Then call Governor Greitens’ Office (573) 751-3222 and tell him to #VETO Right to Work if it passes the Missouri Senate. Governor Nixon had the courage to VETO this same legislation; standing up for working Missourians. Let's encourage Governor Greitens to do the same! This bill passed the House with 101 votes so if Governor Greitens choose to VETO this Legislation they would need to make up 8 votes to override his VETO.

Script:


"Hello. I'm ________ from _________. My zip code is __________. 

Please Vote NO (when calling State Senator)…

Please VETO any Right to Work legislation passed by the Missouri House and Senate (when calling Governor Greitens)….

(For Both Calls add)

No Missouri Voter went into the voting booth on November 8th thinking "how can I reduce my paycheck?" Right to Work (for Less) will reduce OUR pay and hurt OUR economy. This has been the result in every Right to Work state in the surrounding area. Information was released earlier this month that our Missouri economy is better in job creation and pay than any surrounding Right to Work State. Facts matter! Please do not hurt our economy and workforce by supporting Right to Work.

Call Governor Greitens’ Office at (573) 751-3222 and tell him to #VETO Right to Work if it passes the Missouri Senate. Look up your state Senator and find contact information here.

Do Vouchers Truly Help?

'School choice' undermines public system

By Susan McClintic- Former local CMNEA President- January 17, 2017

As Missouri legislators get to work this session, time will tell whether they really support the children of Missouri. House Speaker Todd Richardson said that public school reform is No. 3 on his agenda. “School reform,” often called “school choice,” means things like charter schools, vouchers and education savings accounts. Sounds good, right?

Let’s define these:

• Charter schools: A charter school is publicly funded, meaning tax dollars are diverted from public schools to pay for operations and staffing. Charter schools are often run by a special-interest group. They do not have a districtwide elected school board, nor do they follow the locally approved curriculum, nor do they have the same accountability as public schools. They do not have to accept every child who applies, such as children with special needs, which could include students who are gifted, autistic or struggle with reading, etc. Charter schools rarely provide transportation but are paid for with tax dollars intended for public schoolchildren.
• Vouchers: Vouchers also are paid for with tax dollars diverted from public schools. Families could choose for their children to attend a private school, including religious-based schools, and a voucher pays the tuition or a portion of the tuition. Vouchers may go to children with special needs, but there are no built-in supports in private schools such as speech therapy, special education, sports, performing arts or even school nurses. Most private schools do not provide transportation to ensure everyone has an equal chance to attend, and, once again, private/parochial schools have no obligation to accept every child who applies.
• Education savings accounts: These are similar to vouchers. The state places tax dollars designed for public schools in an account for each child to be used at educational facilities of the family’s choice, which could include tutoring. It might or might not cover all of the expenses or all of the needs of the child; the family makes up the difference in the cost of tuition or service.

Does it still sound good? The problem with “school choice” is that not every Missouri child benefits. Continued erosion of state funding could lead to the elimination of public schools, placing the financial burden on families for their children’s education.

What is not being made a priority in this legislative session is fully funding the educational formula for our public schools. Last year, Missouri school kids were shorted $500 million across our state.

Even with major shortfalls, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is reporting lots of good news from 2015: Attendance rates are up across the state, graduation rates are up to 88 percent, and 70.3 percent of students who took the SAT, ACT or Compass scored at or above the state standards.

Missouri’s public schools are designed to be run by locally elected school boards, with 60 percent of funding coming from state taxes and the other 40 percent from local taxes. This not happening. Instead, our public schools are under attack, and they are slowly being starved to death.

From year to year, school districts never know what funding they will receive. Local school boards and administrations are forced to spend most of their time guessing what tax funding might be coming from the state and running tax levies and bond issues to make up the deficit, rather than working to meet the future needs of our kids. Many want schools to be run like businesses because hard facts are easy to measure, like stacking cases or laying asphalt. These results easily fit in a spreadsheet, but these are our children.

Our children don’t fit into spreadsheets; they grow and develop academically, socially and emotionally at varied rates. Missouri has a responsibility to educate all citizens, and public education is that equalizer. Fully funding our public schools is an opportunity for all students to be given a chance to thrive.

You will hear during this legislative session, and maybe even from your own representative, that the budget just doesn’t allow us to fully fund public schools in our state. The truth is, the formula was designed to support every Missouri child, and budgets clearly show the priorities of the people in power. It won’t be long until we will see whether Missouri’s children are truly a priority.

Susan McClintic is a longtime Columbia Public Schools educator and former president of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association.

UMC Administrators Work on Budget After State Cuts

University of Missouri leaders working on response to state budget cuts

By Rudi Keller, Columbia Daily Tribune January 19, 2017

University of Missouri administrators are considering ways to close the budget hole created by new state withholdings but haven’t reached any decisions, interim MU Chancellor Hank Foley wrote in an email distributed Wednesday to faculty and staff.

MU lost almost $20 million in state support Monday when Gov. Eric Greitens announced he was withholding $146.4 million in general revenue spending, including $83.8 million from college and university budgets. The MU cut includes $13.7 million from operating funds, $4 million to expand School of Medicine programs in Springfield and $2 million for extension programs.

“I am writing to let you know that the senior leaders of the campus are working on this challenge and discussing ways to best fill this gap before the end of the fiscal year,” Foley wrote. “As soon as we have a plan, we will share it broadly and transparently.”

Greitens’ action Monday will reduce state funding for the UM System administration by $789,000 on top of a $3.8 million cut imposed by lawmakers. Interim President Mike Middleton has not decided how to spread out the system cuts, spokesman John Fougere wrote in an email Wednesday.

The withholding took away a budgeted $9 million boost in state aid for MU, part of a $17.9 million increase for the university system. MU and the other campuses will receive less in state support than in the 2015-16 school year. Greitens’ withholding also will take $3.9 million from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, $4.8 million from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and $5.7 million from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Ongoing state revenue shortfalls make further cuts likely and will push costs onto students, state Rep. Kip Kendrick said in a news release about legislation to control student debt. Kendrick, D-Columbia, blamed the cuts on tax reductions enacted by the Republican majority.

“We’ve seen special-interest tax cuts make it all but impossible to fund our state’s critical needs and top priorities. Make no mistake, these budget cuts will ultimately mean higher tuition and increased student debt in Missouri,” Kendrick said.

Foley was not immediately available for comment on his email. To close a projected $36.3 million shortfall in tuition revenue for the current year, in March Foley ordered a 5 percent cut in general fund budgets for all campus divisions and told them to expect further cuts in the next two years. That cut, plus small tuition increases for out-of-state and professional students, was designed to cover all but $10 million of the deficit, with the remainder made up from campus reserves. The university did not increase tuition this year for in-state undergraduate students.

The campus imposed a hiring freeze, MU laid off 37 employees and cut an unknown number of part-time adjunct and full-time non-tenured faculty as a result of Foley’s directive.

University officials are closely monitoring indicators for enrollment next year, Foley wrote. This year’s freshman class was more than 20 percent smaller than the incoming class for 2015 and without a strong recovery, overall enrollment at MU is expected to decline for at least two or three years.

About 58 percent of the core operating budget comes from tuition payments, Foley wrote in the email.

“While finances are a challenge, we are hardly alone,” he wrote. “Budget cuts are happening to public higher education institutions across the country. But with challenge comes opportunity, and we are committed to coming together to define that which is essential to our mission.”

Foley promised to keep faculty and staff informed on plans for absorbing the revenue loss. “I know that times of uncertainty can be a cause for anxiety,” he wrote.

Proposed Impact to Governor's Budget Cuts

Greitens' state funding cuts add to University of Missouri's budget woes

By Rudi Keller

Gov. Eric Greitens cut $83.8 million from college and university budgets Monday, wiping out state funding increases, cutting into core funding and eliminating budget lines for special projects.

The cuts will add to budget woes at the University of Missouri, where lawmakers cut $3.8 million from system administration in the current budget and a precipitous drop in freshman enrollment forced a 5 percent cut to budgets on the Columbia campus.

Instead of receiving a $9 million increase in state aid to help mitigate a $36.3 million decline in tuition revenue, cuts Greitens imposed Monday will reduce the campus budget by an additional $13.7 million. Overall, the university system will bear $31.4 million of $146.4 million of Greitens’ restrictions.

In a video news release, Greitens said lagging state revenue will force $700 million in budget cuts over the coming 18 months, with $146.4 million in immediate restrictions for the year ending June 30.

“The budget we’ve inherited from the previous administration is not balanced,” Greitens said.

In March, interim MU Chancellor Hank Foley announced a 5 percent cut to general fund spending and a campus hiring freeze. He also told administrators to plan for additional cuts of as much as 2 percent for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscal years.

MU laid off 37 employees and cut an unknown number of part-time adjunct and full-time nontenured faculty as a result of Foley’s directive. The campus budget of about $1.2 billion used reserve funds and the anticipated new state aid to reduce the impact of lower tuition revenue.

Christian Basi, MU campus spokesman, referred reporters to the system administration for comment.

A prepared statement from UM System spokesman John Fougere did not indicate where the university would cut spending to cover the shortfall.

“We certainly understand that our state leaders have to make difficult decisions in challenging budgetary times,” the statement read. “We are committed to working closely with our new Governor and General Assembly in making the case for the University of Missouri System’s enormous positive impact on all of Missouri’s citizens and economy.”

Last week, lawmakers and the new Republican administration said tax receipts were well behind estimates made when the current budget was written. In his release, Greitens blamed “a bad business climate and costly Obamacare” for forcing the cuts.

House Minority Leader Gail McCann-Beatty, D-Kansas City, criticized Greitens for targeting higher education. More than 60 percent of the cuts were from education spending lines, she said in a prepared statement.

“Weakening public education won’t grow Missouri’s economy or create jobs,” she said.

Jean Mott Oxford of Empower Missouri, a social welfare advocacy group, blamed tax limitations approved by voters and tax cuts enacted by lawmakers, she said.

“Taken in combination, Missouri’s voters and General Assembly have structured our state to fail to provide essential programs and services and destined Missouri governors to face withholdings repeatedly,” she said in a prepared statement.

The cuts to higher education mean four-year campuses and two-year community colleges will not receive one of 12 equal payments from the state, acting state Budget Director Dan Haug said. The cut to operating funds is about $67.7 million of the total taken from higher education.

Cuts to operating funds at the other campuses will range from $3.9 million at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla to $5.7 million at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Extension services will lose $2 million, and multicampus programs will see state aid cut by $560,000.

Other higher education cuts include:

• $4 million for expanding MU medical school residency programs in Springfield.
• $2 million to expand collaborative dental and pharmacy programs in Joplin between UMKC and Missouri Southern State University.
• $1.6 million for engineering education programs offered by Missouri S&T in Clay County and in collaboration with Missouri State University.

Greitens did not cut funding for public school classrooms, but withheld $8.6 million from school transportation funding. Other large cuts include $4.4 million for the Missouri Technology Investment fund, $3 million from tourism advertising and $3.8 million for biodiesel production incentives. The new spending restrictions are in addition to $200 million in withholdings Gov. Jay Nixon imposed before his term expired Jan. 9.

State colleges and universities are determining what they will do in response to the cuts, said Paul Wagner, executive director of the Council on Public Higher Education.

“We had a pretty good idea that something like this was going to be happening,” Wagner said. “We will be discussing at our next meeting what steps we will need to take to protect the classrooms and do the best thing we can for students.”

The cuts could mean a midyear tuition increase, he said. Whether that will be necessary will become clear when Greitens makes his formal budget proposal in February, Wagner said.

“Once we see the governor’s budget for 2018, we will have a fuller sense of what we are doing for a two-year period and that will inform our decisions as well,” he said.

Higher education always is a target when governors look for places to cut, Wagner said.

“Decision makers simply don’t have a lot of options when it comes to restricting state spending in the middle of the year,” he said. “Higher education presents a more flexible option, and that is what governors have tended to choose.”

Missouri Rep Wants to End Tenure for College Professors

Lawmaker proposes eliminating tenure for public university professors

By Rudi Keller

A state lawmaker who last year proposed yanking scholarships from athletes engaging in game boycotts has a new idea — eliminating academic tenure for new faculty at public universities.

A bill filed by state Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, would end job protections created to protect faculty from politicians or donors who dislike their academic work or public activities. Brattin said Thursday that he wants professors to focus on teaching and engage in research that promises tangible benefits for the state.

“I think we need to focus on the fact that our professors are hired to educate our students to achieve success, and I don’t think that includes having these sorts of protections so they can go off on the deep end on certain issues,” Brattin said.

In December 2015, Brattin proposed, then quickly withdrew, a bill revoking the scholarships of athletes after members of the University of Missouri Tigers football team announced a boycott of athletic activities in support of campus protests by Concerned Student 1950.

The bill raised free speech and NCAA compliance issues and was widely criticized before Brattin backed down.

Brattin also sponsored the 2015 law designed to protect free speech on campus by designating all outdoor areas as public forums.

Brattin’s new bill also would require public colleges and universities to add economic information about degree programs to course catalogs. The required data would include the estimated cost of obtaining the degree, jobs that the degree prepares students to perform and employment data such as income and the percent of graduates working in a field related to the degree.

Too many students are graduating with degrees that do not have “real world applicability,” Brattin said. “The intent is to try and show factual evidence that this degree is tied to this job market.”

Academic tenure was developed in the early 20th century to protect faculty from pressures by donors and politicians who targeted professors for unpopular views or research.

At the University of Missouri, a newly hired assistant professor has as long as six years to qualify with a combination of research, teaching skills and public service. In the 2015-16 academic year, the Columbia campus had 863 tenured faculty and 259 tenure-track faculty out of 1,973 full-time faculty. The portion of faculty with tenure has declined from 69.5 percent in 2006 to 56.8 percent in 2015.

The UM System, through spokesman John Fougere, declined to comment on Brattin’s bill.

Eliminating tenure in Missouri would make faculty recruitment “significantly more difficult” and damage academic freedom, said Ben Trachtenberg, the law professor who chairs the MU Faculty Council.

A tenured faculty member, with job security, can shed light on problems or engage in unpopular research without fear, Trachtenberg said.

“Tenure is one of the ways we help run a very strong university system here that benefits Missourians tremendously,” Trachtenberg said. “It is possible we are not communicating how much good we are doing and how tenure is an important part in achieving those successes.”

Brattin first proposed the requirements for economic data in 2015, adding the tenure prohibition when he filed the bill in December.

The data he is seeking might not be the best measures of the value of a degree, but universities should be prepared to discuss what information should be provided, Trachtenberg said.

“Behind these kinds of discussions is a desire of people around the state to know what the university is up to and how Missourians get value for their money, and that is a discussion the university should be happy to have,” he said.

Here is the House Bill:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 266

99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BRATTIN.

0657H.02I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To repeal section 173.1004, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to public institutions of higher education.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:Section A. Section 173.1004, RSMo, is repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu 2 thereof, to be known as sections 173.940 and 173.1004, to read as follows:

173.940. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no public institution of higher

2 education in this state shall award tenure to any person who is hired by such institution for

3 the first time on or after January 1, 2018. The provisions of this section shall not apply to

4 employees hired prior to January 1, 2018.

173.1004. 1. The coordinating board shall promulgate rules and regulations to ensure

2 that each approved public higher education institution shall post on its website the names of all

3 faculty, including adjunct, part-time, and full-time faculty, who are given full or partial teaching

4 assignments along with web links or other means of providing information about their academic

5 credentials and, where feasible, instructor ratings by students. In addition, public institutions of

6 higher education shall post course schedules on their websites that include the name of the

7 instructor assigned to each course and, if applicable, each section of a course, as well as

8 identifying those instructors who are teaching assistants, provided that the institution may modify

9 and update the identity of instructors as courses and sections are added or cancelled.

10 2. All public institutions of higher education shall post on their public websites

11 alongside their degree offerings or publish in their course catalogs alongside their degree

12 offerings all of the following information for each degree program offered:

EXPLANATION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is intended

to be omitted from the law. Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.

HB 266 2

13 (1) Estimated cost of the degree based on the hours required to complete the degree

14 program, the books likely required to complete the degree program, and the on-campus

15 housing costs for the number of academic years likely required to complete the degree

16 program;

17 (2) Types of employment opportunities generally expected to be available for

18 students who earn the degree;

19 (3) The current job market for people who have earned the degree. Such

20 description of the current job market shall include estimates of the numbers of jobs

21 available in the industries in which people who have earned the degree typically work;

22 (4) The number and percentage of students who earned the degree employed within

23 one year of graduation for the most recent graduating class for which data are available

24 and, for the students so employed, their average income; and

25 (5) The number and percentage of students who earned the degree employed within

26 one year of graduation in a field closely related to the degree program for the most recent

27 graduating class for which data are available.

CPS Faces New Missouri Criminal Code for Bullying

Juvenile officers: Minor school fights unlikely to result in felony charges

By Roger McKinney- Columbia Daily Tribune

The president of the Missouri Bar was surprised by the public reaction to changes in the Missouri criminal code.

The Missouri Bar had drafted the legislation for the criminal code change over several years, consulting with prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, victim advocates and others. The reaction of parents and school officials in Columbia and elsewhere about the possibility of school fights or bullying resulting in felony charges was unexpected.

“It’s created a firestorm,” said Dana Cutler, president of the Missouri Bar.

In addition to the code changes, school districts have adopted anti-bullying policies to meet requirements for internal reporting and investigation outlined in a new state law.

According to information from the Missouri Bar, the criminal code previously included “third-degree assault,” a class A misdemeanor; and “assault while on school property,” a class D felony. Assault while on school property no longer exists under the new code, and third-degree assault became a class E felony, requiring proof of knowingly causing physical injury.

Dan Knight, Boone County prosecutor, said the definition of physical injury is “slight impairment of any part of the body or temporary loss of use of any part of the body.” Previously, the definition included simple physical pain or illness.

The new code also creates the crime of first-degree harassment, a class E felony, which is described as purposely causing emotional distress. Knight said emotional distress is defined as “something markedly greater than the level of uneasiness, nervousness, unhappiness or the like which are commonly experienced.”

“My job is to seek justice and to try my best to protect the community,” Knight said, adding that doesn’t involve filing the heaviest charges on or seeking the maximum penalty for every defendant.

Ruth McCluskey, chief juvenile officer for the 13th Judicial Circuit, said some serious instances of school bullying could be referred to juvenile authorities, as could school fights involving serious injuries, though she said that’s unusual.

“We have a lot of discretion,” she said. “We’ve already been proactive with educational programming for juveniles referred to us. Most of the time, we can resolve things out of” juvenile court. “We’re working on programs to educate kids about bullying when they make a bad decision.”

She said the agreement among Columbia Public Schools and police agencies to allow the school district to handle minor crimes committed by students has reduced the number of students referred to her agency.

Kurt Valentine, chief juvenile officer in Cole County, said no one would be charged with a felony if two kids get in a fight in a school hallway. If a student assaults another student, that might be a criminal matter. He said he considers if a situation is school behavior or criminal behavior, and that hasn’t changed under the new criminal code.

“Our prosecutors have always had discretion about pursuing criminal charges,” Cutler said. “Our counties are not going to use manpower and resources to prosecute a student for what we call a school fight.”

Cutler said the new criminal code is good for all Missourians because it gives prosecutors and judges more discretion with charges and sentences.

Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Peter Stiepleman said he was reassured by Knight and McCluskey’s comments, noting the agreement among CPS and police agencies is a positive step.

“We feel we’re on the same page,” Stiepleman said.

But, he said, he doesn’t like the felony harassment and assault provisions in the criminal code, and CPS will continue to lobby legislators to repeal it. He said the term “harassment” is too subjective, even under the new definition, and it requires police and prosecutors to determine if a situation is isolated, or if it could be repeated by the student.

“It is still problematic in my eyes,” Stiepleman said.

  

Missouri will be Affected by Trump White House Halt to ESSA

Trump White House Hits Pause on Obama's ESSA Accountability Regulations

By Alyson Klein on January 22, 2017 3:12 PM  From Politics K-12

The Trump administration hit the pause button late Friday on a host of Obama administration regulations, including one detailing how accountability and state plans will work under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The regulation, which was finalized in November, doesn't take effect until Jan. 30. On Inauguration Day, the White House issued an executive order delaying for up to 60 days the implementation of any Obama regulations that haven't yet taken effect.

The delay in the accountability regulations, which would seem to last until late March, could throw a monkey wrench into states' efforts to submit their accountability plans by April 3, the first of two deadlines set by the administration. The regulations outline the process for submitting plans, and flesh out details that aren't included in the law. So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have said they want to submit their plans in April.  

What's more, it's not clear what will happen to these regulations after the end of the "pause" period. The Obama administration's final version of the accountability regulations won plaudits both from groups representing practitioners, including the Council of Chief State School Officers and AASA, the School Administrators Association, and folks that are often on the opposite side on accountability issues, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

But congressional Republicans still had concerns about them. And Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education, wouldn't commit to keeping the accountability regulations in their present form on the books when asked about it during her confirmation hearing.

Congressional Republicans also have have said they might want to scrap the accountability regulations, using the Congressional Review Act. That legislative tool, which up until now has only been used once, allows Congress to take an up-or-down vote on new regulations. If lawmakers use the CRA to scrap a particular set of regs, the executive branch is prohibited from issuing a similar set of regulations until a new law is passed.

For practical purposes, that means no administration could write regulations similar to the Obama administration's on ESSA accountability until lawmakers renew the underlying Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That could take a while. ESSA isn't set to be reauthorized until 2020, and it probably will be on the books much longer than that.

 What about other ESSA regulations? The Obama administration's assessment regulations, which were worked out through negotiated rulemaking, and its regulations for the Innovative Assessment Pilot weren't effected by the order. Both of those sets of regulations took effect earlier this month. And the administration's controversial supplement-not-supplant regulations were withdrawn last week. 

Gov. Greitens Makes HUGE Cuts To Higher Ed-Will Give Speech Tuesday

Gov. Greitens cuts $146 million from Missouri budget, with higher education taking brunt

By Kurt Eridkson St. Louis Post-Dispatch  January 16, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY • Gov. Eric Greitens cut $146 million from the state budget Monday in response to a lingering slowdown in state revenue.

Missouri’s new chief executive took aim at spending on state universities and transportation programs as part of his budget-cutting maneuver. His predecessor, former Gov. Jay Nixon, had already pared more than $200 million from the state’s $27 billion spending blueprint before leaving office last week.

The move came the day before Greitens delivers his first State of the State speech since being elected as a political newcomer in November.

Greitens, a Republican who was sworn into office on Jan. 9, is expected to outline his policy goals for the upcoming legislative session in the 7:30 p.m. speech on Tuesday.

But he is departing from tradition and not planning to outline an overall spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Those details, including a plan to close an estimated $456 million gap in revenue, likely will come in early February.

Democrats say the lack of an overall budget plan is troubling.

“It’s not as if the governor and his staff have not been aware of these issues for two months,” said Assistant House Minority Leader Gina Mitten, D-Richmond Heights. “One would think the governor would be focusing on being fiscally responsible.”

As for Monday’s action on the current year budget, aides said Greitens had been reviewing the spending plan since before Thanksgiving.

Higher education bore the lion’s share of the burden, with funding cuts topping $82 million. Harris-Stowe State University lost $101,400 for graduate programs. A cybersecurity training program at Southeast Missouri State University lost $101,400.

“Not a single penny will be taken out of K-12 classrooms,” Greitens said in a social media video accompanying the announcement.

But Greitens did cut $14 million on programs affecting schools, including $8.6 million for busing and $194,000 for teacher training and development programs.

“You elected me because I’ll always tell it like it is, and more hard choices lie ahead. But as Missourians, I believe that we must come together, tighten our belts, be smart and wise with our tax dollars, and work our way out of this hole by bringing more jobs with higher pay to the people of Missouri,” Greitens said.

Few details

The restrictions were targeted at rolling back earmarks, new spending items, programs with no established track record of success, and services that are duplicated elsewhere in government, a news release noted.

Additional details were not immediately available on the reductions. Greitens announced his decision by social media and a news release. His aides did not immediately return messages seeking clarification on some of the cuts.

The cuts address projections showing the state on track to end the fiscal year $39 million in the red, which would violate the state Constitution’s balanced budget provision.

Although individual income tax collections have been steady in the current fiscal year, corporate income taxes have lagged behind estimates. The decrease doesn’t necessarily signal a downturn in business activity, but reflects a 2011 law that jump started a phase-out of the corporate franchise tax.

For calendar year 2016, revenue from corporate income taxes declined by 26.5 percent from 2015, a $64 million decrease in tax revenue.

Greitens said it was the first step in what could be $700 million in cuts to the state’s $27 billion spending plan. He did not address the possibility of seeking a tax increase to close the gap, but he and GOP lawmakers have consistently dismissed that as a possibility in the past.

Tuesday’s speech will be streamed live on the governor’s website — governor.mo.gov — as well as on the House and Senate websites.

Work ahead

Greitens, a political newcomer, laid out the tenets of his approach to governing in his Jan. 9 inaugural speech. The former Navy SEAL wants to make individuals less reliant on government to solve their problems.

Greitens is expected to focus his efforts on many of the issues he made promises about during his run for office against Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster.

Key among those were making Missouri a so-called “right-to-work” state, in which workers could not be forced to pay union dues.

He also said he wants to clean up the culture of Jefferson City, by banning gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers and imposing term limits on all statewide offices.

Greitens also has signaled support for reforming the state’s legal system to make it harder for plaintiffs to win large awards. The Maryland Heights native, 42, also is pushing plans to reduce regulations on businesses.

Lawmakers have already put many of his pet projects in the legislative pipeline, hoping to overcome years of rejection from Nixon, a Democrat who blocked high-profile GOP initiatives with his veto pen.

As an example of work already underway by lawmakers, a House committee will discuss proposals Wednesday that would create a Blue Alert System, which would assist in the identification and location of any person suspected of killing or serious wounding a law enforcement officer.

Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, agreed that the delay by Greitens in unveiling an overall budget plan was unfortunate. But he said the Republican majority will work well with the new governor.

Koenig, a former member of the House who won a seat in the Senate in November, said he’s hopeful the governor focuses on reducing what he calls “corporate welfare.” Koenig said he was encouraged when Greitens announced he opposed tax credits for a proposed new soccer stadium in downtown St. Louis.

Koenig is less enthusiastic about a Greitens initiative that would lengthen the waiting period for lawmakers to become lobbyists. The Legislature last year imposed a six-month cooling-off period. Greitens wants the waiting time to match the number of years a lawmaker has served in the House or Senate.

“We already fixed that problem,” Koenig said, suggesting that Greitens wait for a year to see how the current ban works before pushing for his own proposal.

Fourth candidate files for Columbia Board of Education seat

Columbia Daily Tribune Staff   January 14, 2017

A fourth candidate has filed to run for one of three positions on the Columbia Board of Education.

Robin M. Dianics is the most recent to file for the April 4 election. Dianics did not immediately return a message and an email seeking comment Friday.

The fourth candidate will result in a competitive election, with three, three-year terms on the school board to be decided by voters.

Dianics will face three incumbents — Helen Wade, Paul Cushing and Jonathan Sessions.

The filing deadline for school board candidates is 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Candidates must file at the Columbia Public Schools Administration Building, 1818 W. Worley St. Filing will be closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

MNEA Hosts Legislative Forum in Columbia

Teachers union questions legislators on education priorities

By Roger McKinney Columbia Daily Tribune   January 13, 2017

While saying they support public education, state legislators at an education forum Thursday said the state’s budget situation might prevent them from fully funding K-12 education.

The Missouri National Education Association sponsored the forum at Rock Bridge High School, with MNEA Legislative Director Otto Fajen as the moderator. Participating were Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia; Rep. Nate Walker, R-Kirksville; Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville; Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia; Rep. Martha Stevens, D-Columbia; Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport; and Rep. David Wood, R-Versailles.

Educators have questions about state funding as lagging revenue continues to crunch the state budget.

A report released Wednesday by the Office of Administration shows state revenue is growing too slowly to meet planned expenditures for fiscal year 2017. Projections show that at the current rate, spending is outpacing revenue in the fiscal year beginning in July by $456 million.

Wood, a retired teacher, sponsored a bill last year placing a 5 percent cap on annual growth to the school funding formula. He said he was making the goal an achievable one.

“The foundation formula is outdated,” Wood said. “I think it’s going to take a lawsuit to fix it.”

Basye said education funding should be a “huge priority,” though he said public schools are not the right fit for all parents.

Rowden said Kansas and Illinois are good examples of how not to run a state government. Rowden said Gov. Eric Greitens potentially offers some new opportunities for education because he comes with a different perspective.

Kendrick said special-interest tax cuts are putting a drain on the state budget.

“Sales tax exemptions and other tax cuts have put us in a difficult situation,” he said.

Stevens said her top priorities are funding the foundation formula and early childhood education, though she was skeptical about whether those would be priorities for the General Assembly.

Stevens said it’s important for teachers to tell legislators what they think about issues.

“You guys are the experts,” Stevens said. “We do need to look to you.”

Kory Kaufman, a member of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association, said he liked that some of the lawmakers acknowledged that teachers are the education experts. He expressed cautious optimism about the legislative session.

“Lip service is easy to give,” he said. “I’m excited to see what action comes from it.”

Democrats Name Candidate For 50th District Special Election

Democrats nominate Skelton for 50th District special election By Rudi Keller Columbia Daily Tribune

CALIFORNIA, Mo. — Democrats on Monday nominated Michela Skelton for the 50th House District special election, setting up the first legislative election under a new regime of limited campaign donations.

The district, which includes portions of Boone, Cole, Cooper and Moniteau counties, supported Donald Trump and other Republicans in November when incumbent state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, won re-election without opposition. Jones resigned before his term began to become deputy chief of staff to Gov. Eric Greitens.

Skelton’s nomination was uncontested at the 50th District Democratic Committee meeting, which lasted only a few minutes. Skelton is an attorney who formerly worked for the Missouri Senate.

Republicans are expected to nominate Sara Walsh, a member of the Boone County Republican Central Committee and GOP state committeewoman for the 19th Senate District. They have scheduled a meeting Jan. 28 in Ashland to make a nomination for the Aug. 8 special election.

Skelton told the six members of the nominating committee that she quit her post as a legislative attorney to prepare for a 2018 race for the legislative seat, when Jones would have been forced out by term limits if he had not resigned. “I saw firsthand the dysfunction we have running rampant in Jefferson City,” Skelton said.

The 50th District was drawn into its current boundaries after the 2010 census. The Boone County portion of the district generally had been represented by Democrats before districts were redrawn; counties south of the Missouri River generally have been represented by Republicans.

Winning the district will be a challenge for Skelton. While Jones was uncontested for re-election, Republicans including President-elect Trump carried 11 of 19 Boone County polling locations in November, while Democrats won in seven.

“I plan on winning this race by talking to everybody I absolutely can,” Skelton said.

Economics and education will be key issues, she said. State revenue faces a $500 million shortfall, and most of that will be made up from cuts in education, she predicted.

Democrats need to focus more on rural job development and ways to increase wages, she said. “We are working too much for too little, and it is tearing our families apart,” Skelton said.

Under Amendment 2, passed by voters in November, donors can contribute as much as $2,600, but candidates cannot accept donations from other candidate committees, and help from political party committees is limited. In two contested Boone County House races won by Republicans in November, $288,000 out of $383,000 raised by the GOP candidates would not be allowed under Amendment 2.

The new limits will have little impact on the race, Skelton said.

“There are sufficient loopholes that those wanting to donate large amounts will find a way,” she said.

A bigger factor, she said, will be how well the economy is doing with Republicans in charge in Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City.

“There are no Democrats really left to blame for the continuing economic stress in small communities,” Skelton said.

The committee had a few questions for Skelton before approving her nomination. She supported Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Robert Haslag of Cole County said, but Skelton said she voted for Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Haslag also advised Skelton to avoid social issues, such as abortion and gun rights, that work against Democrats in the district.

Committee Chairman Gail Hughes, who is also the Moniteau County Democratic Party chairman, said the committee needs to work hard for Skelton. “I think the Democrats are enthused,” he said. “I think we can possibly win this race.”