Joe Hadsall: Will PACs impact issue of school choice?

January 07, 2008 11:23 am

— By Joe Hadsall
Globe columnist
Give Rex Sinquefield credit for being honest about it.
The retired financial analyst and director of the Show-Me Institute has made no bones about his financial involvement in Missouri politics.
Sinquefield made waves earlier this year when he created and funded 100 political action committees, each with an initial deposit of $2,500, according to documents filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Of those 100 committees, 50 deal with education, creating a link to an issue close to Sinquefield’s heart: school choice.
Called a voucher system by some, the concept would create a mechanism to reimburse state tax dollars to parents who choose to send their children to private school.
Such transfers could be accomplished through a variety of means, including refunds of property taxes, redirection of funds from a school district or giving a parent a grant to attend a certain school.
It’s a controversial issue. Teachers’ groups and educators have rallied against such systems, saying they divert public funds into private areas without accountability and destroy the foundation of our public education system.
Already, two bills dealing with school choice have been filed:
n Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, has submitted a bill that would allow for parents of private-school or home-schooled students to be reimbursed their school property taxes. The bill, HB 1316, would also declare parents’ right to make all health-care and education decisions for their children, but those rights would not include allowing an abortion.
n Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis, pre-filed a bill that would require the state to provide fully subsidized preschool for children who live in an unaccredited or provisionally accredited district.
Two of Joplin’s leaders, Rep. Ron Richard and Sen. Gary Nodler, say they think the issue should be debated on the floors of their respective chambers.
Richard, who is projected to be the Speaker of the House in 2009, said that he favors the issue for parents residing in failing districts. As for the Joplin area, which is filled with schools that have been accredited with distinction by the state, he is not so sure. But Richard said that, as speaker, he would allow that debate to happen.
Nodler also agrees that a debate should happen.
“The fact is that homeschooling parents pay taxes that support the public schools,” Nodler said. “They are paying a disproportionate cost, and there needs to be some acknowledgment of that problem.”
The $64,000 question, pardon the pun: Will Sinquefield’s money bring forward some sort of law dealing with school choice?
Both Richard and Nodler said they were unaware of any donations from any of Sinquefield’s committees.
We won’t know officially until later in January, when fund-raising reports from Missouri officeholders are due. Sinquefield’s political action committees were formed after the last quarterly reports were due. Then we’ll also know if Davis or Smith got any of his money.
One person has already prospered from 65 of Sinquefield’s committees. Sen. Chris Koster, who defected from the Republican party to run for attorney general as a Democrat, reported $82,875 worth of donations from the committees.
Stay tuned.

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