Resources being necessary to carry out the charge of public education in the state of Missouri,

MASA Supports:

Ensuring the foundation formula and the transportation categorical are fully funded;
Ensuring that a long-term plan is developed to fund Parents as Teachers and early childhood education programs in all school districts;
Funding the Small School appropriation for the formula;
Increasing the bonding capacity for school districts;
Funding to further enhance school safety (e.g., mental health programming, facility upgrades, staff onboarding and training, etc.) so as to prevent/reduce inappropriate and/or dangerous behavior;
Creating a comprehensive state plan to address improvement of educator salaries;
Reforming Missouri’s tax credit programs by:
- Placing a sunset clause on all current and future tax credit programs;
- Making all new tax credit programs subject to the appropriations process;
- Prohibiting the use of multiple tax credit programs on the same project, particularly the stacking of the low-income tax credit with the historic preservation tax credit;
- Conducting a standardized, annual review of tax credit programs to monitor and report on each tax credit’s return on investment;
- Tying the caps of tax credit programs to funding of categorical education spending;
- Modifying the Circuit Breaker Tax Credit to increase the number of eligible participants; and
- Placing a portion of the savings from tax credit reform in a dedicated fund for the improvement of school facilities and infrastructure;
Requiring the unanimous support of all taxing jurisdictions for any tax abatement project. If unanimous support cannot be achieved, the issue should either be put to a vote of the people in the affected taxing jurisdictions or schools should be given the ability to opt out of the abatement;
Providing resources to provide targeted professional development to school districts and their administrators so they may utilize the unique resources in their community to better address the mental healthcare of their students;
Ensuring flexibility of professional development funds to allow for alignment with district needs;
Consideration of revenue enhancements such as tobacco taxes, alcohol taxes or a general sales tax to provide long-term funding for Missouri public schools;
Ensuring county assessors conduct accurate assessments to ensure true market value is obtained and penalizing assessors that fail to meet that task;
Allowing voters to approve bond issues with a simple majority;
Creating state funding for school facility replacement and/or improvement;
Restoring districts’ ability to maintain discretion in evaluating the quality of virtual education offerings and providing flexibility to make enrollment decisions that are in the best interest of students; and

MASA Opposes:

Diverting state funds from the public schools by any means including tuition tax credits/vouchers;
Revenue reductions that impact the state’s ability to fund public education;
Mandating open enrollment of students to attend schools in districts in which their parents do not pay property taxes;
Any effort to reduce the amount of funding available to districts for summer school;
Mandating programs without appropriating the necessary funds to implement and sustain the programs;
Imposing property tax reductions, freezes or limits;
Transforming the early childhood special education program from a required to a voluntary program;
Replacing the Missouri income tax with a sales tax;
Forcing consolidation of school districts;
Limiting the ability of school districts to seek civil, equitable and other legal remedies; and
Any effort to nullify election determinations based upon an arbitrary threshold of voter turnout.

Missouri Association of School Administrators