JEFFERSON CITY | Lawmakers spent several hours today debating an omnibus education bill. And then they killed it.
The wide-ranging legislation included a vast expansion of the state's A+ Schools Program, a new rating system for early childhood education programs and changes to how vacancies are filled on the Kansas City School Board, among dozens of other measures.
House lawmakers from both parties spent about four hours offering and debating amendments to the 203-page bill, but when the time came to vote, they joined together in opposition. The final vote: 43 for, 116 against.
Rep. Maynard Wallace, a Thornfield Republican and the bill's sponsor, said later the bill contained a handful of measures opposed by one party or the other. Taken together, they were enough to kill the bill.
Afterward, lawmakers said their opposition stemmed from the bill's price tag, which would've totaled approximately $58.4 million for the coming year and risen even higher in subsequent years.
"What I saw today was a bloated, expensive house committee substitute that removed all notions of reform" from earlier versions of the bill, said Rep. Tim Jones, a St. Louis County Republican.
The "no" vote likely derails the bill for the remainder of the session, which ends Friday. The defeat is definitely a setback, although perhaps not a fatal one, for the top priorities of some of the Capitol's most powerful players.
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, had sought to expand the state's A+ Schools Program, which allows qualified high school students to attend community colleges for free. Nixon's plan would've expanded the program to include all Missouri high school students and given community college graduates the ability to continue their free education at a four-year institution.