Matt Blunt Balances Budget on Backs of Private School Contractors

Area summer-school programs to take hit: Districts will have to rethink offerings after state cuts:

A change in Missouri's school-funding formula may mean ditching a summer-school program that has been credited by at least one Southwest Missouri superintendent with playing a role in the accreditation of his school district.

McDonald County Superintendent Randall Smith said he believes the state is making a mistake by not offering districts an incentive for having summer school. He said the lack of that incentive could affect the district's use of an outside contractor.

"When we started with Edison Schools in 2001, we were only provisionally accredited," Smith said. "Now we're fully accredited with distinction, and I have to give at least some of the credit to the summer-school program created by Edison Schools."

The new school-funding formula, adopted by the Legislature last week and sent to Gov. Matt Blunt for his signature, calls for more funding in general for schools, but it ends a policy of paying double for every hour of summer school attended by students.

I've not been atop the school funding issue; they've tinkered with the esoteric wealth redistribution formula and critics of the current Missouri state administration (Matt Blunt) equate it with a pogrom. But somehow, ending double payment wherein the state doled out tax payer dollars at two-for-one for every hour of student attendance in summer school seems like a good way to trim budget.

Unless you're the local school district being weaned from the drying Missouri state taxpayer teat.