Cape Girardeau school board opposes open enrollment

At a regular meeting Monday, Feb. 27, Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Education members approved a resolution opposing legislation regarding open enrollment of nonresident students in Missouri public schools.

The resolution stated the board "has resolved to focus resident taxpayer resources upon the education of students who reside in the District." It further stated that "open enrollment will result in a significant adverse financial impact on public schools" and that "no credible research" has shown that it improves student achievement.

Superintendent Neil Glass said he put the resolution before the board because, "I want our lawmakers to know where we stand," referring to the "Public School Open Enrollment Act", or Missouri House Bill 253, currently making its way through the state's legislature.

"It's really bad policy for our district in particular and for a lot of smaller districts as well," Glass said. "If we open up our borders and allow students to transfer back-and-forth, I'm very scared of what it will do to this district."

Glass said districts participating in open enrollment won't be taking the "hard to educate student."

"They're going to take the students that they feel will improve their student body," Glass said. "This leaves the sitting district with students that are hard to staff. That makes it harder on faculty and on staff."

Board member Kyle McDonald said he agreed, and used Kansas City Public Schools as an example.

"The amount of destruction it did to that school district was phenomenal," McDonald said. "Not just the amount of dollars it took outside the school district but the hardships it put on the district as a whole."

McDonald pointed out that districts contract with their teachers in April for the following school year. However, with open enrollment, they can't be certain how many students they will have by the time school starts in August. He said districts, such as Kansas City, can end up with more teachers than they need, and this is costly because they have to honor the contracts they made.

Board member Paul Cairns supported the resolution Glass proposed saying, "I think (open enrollment) solves a problem we don't have."