The impact of a Missouri law that allows students from unaccredited districts to transfer out of their home districts is becoming increasingly visible: More than 100 staff members in the Normandy school district, near St. Louis, are slated to lose jobs due to budget cuts resulting from the transfer law, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Some 1,000 Normandy students left the district, which is unaccredited, in order to attend higher-performing schools nearby. About 3,000 students remain. That wave of transfers means the Normandy district is likely to go bankrupt, as it must pay tuition and transportation for the students who leave.
Missouri’s education department has requested some $6.8 million from the state’s legislature in order to keep the district afloat.
The teachers who are laid off will work until the end of December, the Post-Dispatch reports. It’s not yet been determined which teachers and staff will be laid off.
The nearby Riverview Gardens district is also unaccredited. Here’s an Education Week story about the impact of the transfers on those communities and on the districts that received new students earlier this fall.
The law could affect other districts, as well: The Kansas City school district is also unaccredited, despite a battle to regain its accreditation earlier this year, and a number of other districts in the state are close to losing their accreditation.
Third grader Warren Evans works on a reading exercise at Bel-Nor Elementary School in the Normandy, Mo., school district. --Sid Hastings for Education Week