MOScout Daily Update: Evans Registers To Lobby - Ed Debate Rages - Special for Redistricting? - More 2022 Talk and more...
Evans Registers to Lobby
Jean Evans, former executive director for Missouri Republican Party, registered over the weekend as a lobbyist. Before her role with the MRP, Evans was a state representative from St. Louis County in a swing district.
And
Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis County is engaging lobbyists to help it with the current push to rein in local health boards. See it here.
The Post-Dispatch has learned the lobbying team includes David Winton, former Sen. Kurt Schaefer, Henrio Thelemaque and Doug Nelson, who was a top aide to former Gov. Jay Nixon… An estimated cost for their work was not immediately available. In addition to focusing on the legislation, the team also could advise the county on how to manage future federal emergency relief aid and to help improve COVID-19 vaccination rates... The cap on the contract is $150,000, he added…
Ed Debate Ahead of the Ed Debate
With the Senate getting ready for a big education debate in the coming weeks, the public debate is heating up.
Post-Dispatch’s Blythe Bernhard offers an overview of St. Louis City’s system which has seen growth in charter schools with a decline in traditional public school enrollment. Read it here.
· The SLPS board will vote Tuesday on a moratorium on new schools in the city — a symbolic move that effectively seeks to stall the growth of charter schools. Any such restriction would have to come from state legislation.
· When charter schools first opened in St. Louis 20 years ago, their backers promised innovation and competition that would raise the performance of all public schools. But as a whole, charters have not changed the quality of public education in the city. The average performance score for charter schools, which includes factors such as attendance, test scores and high school or college preparedness, was 80% in 2018, the most recent figures available. St. Louis Public Schools scored 79%, according to state data.
· Charter schools now enroll close to 12,000 students in St. Louis. The SLPS student population dropped below 20,000 last year, compared with close to 45,000 when the first charters opened. That 60/40 ratio of district to charter students puts SLPS in a perilous financial position, state school board members told Superintendent Kelvin Adams last month. Under Missouri law, charter schools are funded through a tax revenue formula per student, with the total amount then subtracted from the state’s allotment to the home school district.
· Charter schools in St. Louis once educated a higher percentage of Black students compared with SLPS but now attract more white families. In 2007, Black students made up close to 90% of charter school enrollment; the figure has dropped to 66%, as SLPS has remained steady at about 80% Black enrollment.
O’Laughin: School Choice will have Little to no Impact on Rural Schools
Senate Education Chair Cindy O’Laughlin, in her latest capitol report, assures folks that there’ll be little impact in rural schools…
· There are many school choice proposals floating around the legislature this year. There’s also more momentum to make small changes to the way we do K-12 education in the state, in response to COVID-19. Many public school leaders are worried about how this will impact their bottom line. For many of the proposals, there’s little to no financial impact on rural schools…
· I have heard from many school administrators and school board members who oppose legislation to create this scholarship program and other tweaks to education policy that give parents more options. I want them to know that they have been heard and that there are also ways to continue to improve the legislation prior to a vote. For example, lawmakers could carve out rural areas in this scholarship program, since most of these bills are meant to address mostly urban problems...
· Some schools, mostly in urban areas, are struggling to graduate students that can read or write, creating mostly one career path – criminal activity…
· One-size-fits-all education works for most, particularly in our rural areas, but it doesn’t work for everyone. It seems inhumane to ignore the plight of families living in urban areas that live in districts that are failing them and cannot afford other options…
eMailbag Ed Reaction
The fact that we have such divisive sides in the first place is the problem, lawmakers are forced to choose if they are pro-reform or pro-public education before they know where the bathroom is and their immediately judged in the building as much or more as their position of being pro-life or pro-choice. Moreover, it’s a shame that the two sides have such tunnel vision with less cooperation than what is actually happening in schools... I know charter school principals who meet with their public school counterparts at least once a month to compare notes, and I know countless charter school parents and families who are close friends with public school parents and families. Perhaps we need to start a new “pro-student” caucus…
Special for Redistricting?
One building denizens thinks the general assemble may have to defer the congressional redistricting for a special session on account of the delays hitting the census data. “If you don’t have the information to even start before April how can you get it all done before session ends… I could be way off but I wouldn’t bet on it happening during the regular session…”
Gaines Hit by COVID
I’m told that Kent Gaines has been on a ventilator from COVID for several weeks. Gaines, together with Travis Brown, had one of the larger lobbying firms in the state about twenty years ago, before the two split. They later reconciled and Gaines has lately been an infrequent presence in the capitol. The lobbyist who related this news asked that everyone please “keep him in your prayers.”
eMailbag on 2022
Readers weighed in on the possible 2022 Senate race…
· I think it's too early to say that Sifton will avoid a tough primary. He has no name ID, others will emerge, and even Kander is still a possibility, especially if Greitens runs, and probably even more so if Roy bows out.
· Regarding 2022 US Senate race. The Democratic brand is dead in rural Missouri for the foreseeable future. Democrats will not win the US Senate seat held by Roy Blunt. Democrats that care about Missouri and country are more concerned with insuring that Roy Blunt wins his primary than with tilting at windmills in the general election.
eMailbag
Senator Steve Roberts won the week as a freshman he added more amendments to the senate bill and carried the filibuster..
New Committees
David Smith formed a candidate committee (Friends of David Tyson Smith) to run for House 45 as a Democrat. The special election is April 6 to fill the vacancy by Kip Kendrick’s resignation. Read a profile here.
Hadley Township Democratic Club was formed. It’s a PAC. Its treasurer is Ryan Jarvis.
Lobbyists Registrations
Brett Ewer added CrossFit LLC.
Nicole DeMont added National Redistricting Action Fund.
Jean Evans added DSL Consulting Group, GO Consulting, and Brief.
Brittany Hyatt Robbins added Missouri Alliance For Animal Legislation, and Torch Electronics LLC.
Tracy King added Torch Electronics LLC.
Michael Randy Michelson deleted Caldwell County Commission.
$5K+ Contributions
314 Forward (pro-Tishaura Jones) - $15,000 from Donald Suggs.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Terry Swinger and Kathie Conway.