Legislative Priority Positions

Independence Board of Education 2024 Legislative Session
Legislative Priority Positions

In the interest of public education in the Independence School District, we ask members of the Missouri General Assembly to:

1. Support the local school district’s authority to operate a four day school week, prepare their school calendar, and establish the beginning of the school year that is in the best interests of students, staff, and
2. Support deadlines for certification of Assessed Valuation to allow school districts to be more accurate in setting levies.
3. Support the full funding of state mandates in accordance with the Missouri
4. Support increasing overall state funding, per pupil1 in an effort to make Missouri rank in the top one-half of all states in the country in support of K-12 public
5. Support local school district’s authority to make decisions about matters such as: open enrollment; employee compensation and working conditions; class sizes; educational placement, curriculum and instructional materials; professional development; program and employee evaluation; and Board member election terms and dates.
6. Support a line-item appropriation of state funding for safety measures for local school districts to protect students from harm and/or violence.
7. Support a consistent set of standards and tools to measure the progress of students and meet their educational needs while allowing districts to respond and implement these changes without further disruption to state standards or
8. Strengthen laws that control tax abatement programs.
9. Support funding for Early Childhood expansion.
10. Support a change in the bonding capacity for school districts from 15% to 20% of the district’s assessment valuation.
11. Support maintaining full funding of the transportation formula! including modifying the provision the provision that penalizes school districts when they transport highly mobile students back to their original school of attendance.
12. Oppose charter school expansion as law currently exists. All local tax funds should be under the control of a publicly elected board and revenue should not be diverted to non­ public educational entities.