Brad Haggard
The St. Joseph School District Board of Education is praising the Governor for his veto of a bill members said would have caused issues within the district.
“We are thankful for strategic partnerships across the state that helped us encourage the governor to veto house bill 42, which would have been a burden on the St. Joseph School District,” said Brad Haggard, board president.
On Monday the board voted unanimously to approve a resolution asking the Governor to veto House Bill 42. The bill was aimed at revamping the state’s student transfer system.
The board said the bill does little to address the problems in the current student transfer law, unnecessarily expands charter schools not governed by locally elected boards of education in numerous school districts in the state without adequate accountability, unnecessarily expands student transfers into school districts that are performing well and fails to meet the goal of providing quality educational opportunities for all students in the state.
“I’m also thankful for our school board that unanimously passed a resolution encouraging the governor to veto this bill,” Haggard said.
Nixon on Friday criticized expanded options for virtual schools and said the bill didn’t address key issues with current law.
Failing schools now must pay tuition if students decide to transfer elsewhere. Many districts said that’s caused financial hardship as they work to regain accreditation.
Nixon also cited the lack of a tuition cap in his veto. He said without that, schools that are struggling the most would continue to lose resources.
(AP contributions to this story)