I read several articles, including an excellent one from The Progressive, by Brendan Fischer and Lisa Graves, which gave me a clear picture of what is happening behind the scenes through this initiative process in Missouri. Mark Jones, MNEA Political Director, clearly laid out the timeline for this initiative to actually get on the ballot and the process for signature validation.
I invite you to read on to get a glimpse of what one St. Louis billionaire believes he can do to take away local control from school districts across the state. This ballot initiative will negatively effect our profession, our students, our schools and communities. SNEA will keep you posted on what you can do to keep this initiative from becoming a neatly purchased amendment to our state constitution.
Remarks
to the SPS School Board
April 29,
2014
By
Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president
Ballot
Initiative/Petition Process
What is
it?
Many of you have run into people
gathering signatures for petitions. Maybe it’s out in front of your library or
driver’s license office. If you’re like me, you begin by asking clarifying
questions…like, “Do you live here?” “Are you registered to vote in Greene
County?” “Do you get paid?” “By whom?”
The ballot initiative process is
an avenue for citizens to bring an issue that is important to them before the
people for a vote. The process is intended to be a grassroots movement,
motivated by intense support for an issue. Make No Mistake-This is NO Grass
Roots Movement!!!
Who is
paying for it?
Rex Sinquefield, a St. Louis billionaire,
also the state’s biggest political contributor, is funding the ‘teachgreat’ initiative
to get this measure on the ballot in November. This billionaire’s priorities
are to financially support legislation that will lower his own taxes and to
privatize public education. Each person working on this ballot initiative campaign
is being paid to do so. They are not motivated by personal ideals or issues.
Here, I’d like to point out that
none of the public education stakeholders that we often look to are asking for
these changes.
NOT the
* Missouri School Board Association
* Missouri Association of School Administrators
* PTA
* Teacher’s Associations
What IS
in the ballot initiative language?
In a nutshell, it strips local
control over educator evaluations and the teacher tenure process. The language
implements a top-down, one-size-fits-all,
standardized testing event for every
child, in every district across the
state.
We
already know what’s working in Springfield…
SPS is developing and in the
process of implementing an Educator Evaluation Plan, based on a framework
recommended by DESE. It is highly collaborative, transparent and holds all
parties in the process accountable. SPS has processes in place to recruit and
retain highly qualified educators. When there are concerns about a teachers’
competence or performance, there are steps taken to support their improvement
and if that doesn’t happen there is a path to let them go.
This initiative puts a huge
emphasis on the status of our students from a one-time, high stakes test event,
rather than on student growth through multiple measures and formative data,
over time.
It would be a HUGE step backward for SPS!
Where are
we in the ballot initiative process?
They need to gather between 147,000-160,000
signatures. Right now, the Coalition for Missouri’s Future believes they will
get enough signatures
On May 4th they will
be submitted to the office of the Secretary of State for validation. If
approved, the issue will go on the November ballot.
There may be legal challenges
along the way, especially on the lack of clarity of the ballot language as it
would appear for voters, specifically the non-disclosure of the financial
burden it would place on local districts
SUMMARY:
This ballot initiative pits the
support of public education through local control against political
opportunism. It is an outside party, taking away local control and at the same
time implementing one-size fits all processes which teachers do not believe are
best practices for their own professional evaluation, nor for the effective
assessment of their student’s growth, progress and achievement.
Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president
