State senator Jill Carter on school funding and trade schools

The Missouri National Education Association is suing the state over a program that gives taxpayer money to vouchers that can go to private schools.

Governor Kehoe and the legislature is trying to kickstart funding for school vouchers but is it taking funds away from public schools?

State senator Jill Carter tells Newstalk KZRG:

“What’s been going on is in Missouri we have tax credit programs for vouchers that have been underperforming through contributions. And so I think the 51 million was an attempt to kind of jump start more investments into that program. And you know, what kind of has been playing in the background of all of this is for years the foundation formula for (public) education has been underfunded, but the mandates continue to increase on our schools.”

Carter went on to say:  “And so I think there’s, I’m making some assumptions, but I’m assuming that part of the reason why the NEA is doing what they’re doing is to try to bring some resolution to this push pull when in regards to education funding.”

Should there be a revamping of Missouri’s trade school program?  

State senator Jill Carter tells Newstalk KZRG:

“I think we’re already starting to see that. Like I said, as part of that Senate bill there was a career tech certification program. So we’ve had the “A plus” program for our students for quite a few years. But what was part of that Senate Bill 150 that we passed was also where students can take “E plus” money now and use it for some of those more high demand tech certification programs. So we’re already starting to see this transformation of you know, we need to make sure that there’s more than one career path for students.”