Area school leaders keep tabs on open enrollment proposal

Brad Pollitt files an open enrollment bill for sixth year.

Gearl Loden: Nixa district has limited space for transfers.

Lori Wilson: Schools cannot keep students from leaving.

Grenita Lathan: SPS talking to lawmakers about bill impact.

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Missouri school choice supporters hope 2026 is the year perennial legislation to allow students to transfer to other districts is signed into law.

Gov. Mike Kehoe called on state lawmakers to send the legislation to his desk. He proposed $7.5 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget to “make open enrollment a reality as soon as possible.”

“Open enrollment gives families the freedom to choose the public school that best meets their child’s needs, regardless of their ZIP code,” Kehoe said, in the State of the State address on Jan. 13. “It’s about fairness, it’s about access and it’s about making sure no child’s future is limited by their address.”

Kehoe endorsed complementary bills filed by state Sen. Curtis Trent, R-Springfield, and state Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia.

This is the sixth year Pollitt has filed an open enrollment bill, which stalled when it reached Democratic senators last year.

“It’ll be tough, but I think I can get it through the House again. We’ll just see what happens in the Senate. There is some momentum with the governor again,” Pollitt said in a Jan. 16 interview with Springfield Business Journal. “If we don’t give people a choice in the public school system, if they want choice, they’re going to leave.”

Pollitt said parents may seek transfers for a range of reasons, including stronger academic outcomes, access to classes and programs not offered in their district, or proximity to work.

“Individual families would make individual decisions based on what’s best for their family,” he said.

Opponents have argued open enrollment undermines local control, drains funding, and may result in crowding of certain schools and the emptying out or consolidation of others.

“I just wish people had more faith in their district,” Pollitt said. “If they’re worried about their district closing, then I guess they have some feeling somewhere that they’re not really providing what their students need, or why would a parent decide to leave a district?”

The proposals from Pollitt and Trent allow districts to decide annually if they will accept transfers or opt out, based on projected enrollment and available space. Their bills cap how many students can transfer out of a district each year.

“I don’t see us being able to take children from out of the district, just because we don’t have room for the ones that we have,” said Nixa Superintendent Gearl Loden. “When we add on a building, we’re adding on based on demographic studies. So, even if we have space for a few years, it’s not going to be there for the long term.”

Loden said open enrollment is not a silver bullet for improving academic achievement and noted in other states with the option, most students remain in their home district.

“I don’t see it moving the dial for the state of Missouri, where we are instantly going to go up, be a top-tier state,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and it’s going to take more than open enrollment.”

He said the impact of open enrollment will vary, if approved. “Certain communities are going to be hit harder than others.”

Pollitt’s 2026 version of his open enrollment bill revised expectations for busing, which was a sticking point last year: “It no longer says that the receiving district will be responsible to provide transportation,” he said. However, districts can designate drop-off spots for transfer students from neighboring districts who want to ride the bus.

Ozark Superintendent Lori Wilson said the district has not decided if it would accept transfers, noting there is limited space available without increasing class sizes.

“Right now, our conversations are just about is this going to happen and what are the rules and how we’re going to handle it,” she said.

Wilson said the downside, for any district, is that they “can’t keep students from leaving.”

Missouri districts rely on a mix of local, state and federal funding to educate students.

“My bill says the state attendance money would follow the student, but the local taxes would not follow that student,” Pollitt said.

He said funding proposed by Kehoe will provide one-time payments to districts for each transfer student they accept.

Springfield Superintendent Grenita Lathan said the district has talked to lawmakers, including Trent and Pollitt, about the proposal. Pollitt also participated in a legislative retreat with the school board last year.

Lathan said SPS is seeking more information about how the $7.5 million proposed by Kehoe will be used.

“We’ll be doing a deep dive in to see if this moves forward, what will be the financial support to school districts if they choose to participate and implement,” she said.