This week…
Once again, the Missouri Senate experienced continued GOP infighting. Unfortunately, this week, these delay tactics were used against a bill that would help victims of sexual assault and children that have been abused.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Wilson delivered the annual State of the Judiciary in the House of Representatives Chamber.
Next week, the Missouri House of Representatives and Missouri Senate will be on spring break and will return Monday, March 21, 2022. There are a lot of important issues to still be resolved this year including redistricting and passing a budget.
Missouri House of Representatives
Advanced Placement (AP) Exams
Representative Chis Brown’s House Bill 1683 passed out of the House Higher Education Committee as amended. This bill requires in-state public educational institutions to grant undergraduate course credit for students who score 3 or higher on advance placement examinations. The bill no longer includes the section that would have required that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to identify correlations between the subject matter and content of courses offered by each institution and the subject matter and content of courses and examinations in the advanced placement program. The current amended text also clarifies that if a university does not offer the course than they do not have to accept it. The ÃÈÃÃÉçÇø System was happy to see the changes that were made to this legislation and appreciates the work that the sponsor did to work with us and others to resolve concerns.
Athletics
The Missouri General Laws Committee held a hearing regarding several bills relating to transgender student athletes. Please see a list of bills that were considered below.
- House Bill 2197, introduced by Representative Bennie Cook, would prohibit public school districts and institutions of higher education from allowing an individual of the male sex to participate in a sport designated for the female sex.
- House Bill 2461, introduced by Representative Jamie Burger, which prohibits public schools from allowing a student of the male sex to participate on a school sponsored athletic team that is exclusively for students of the female sex.
- House Bill 2374, introduced by Chuck Basye, would prohibit public school districts and institutions of higher education from allowing an individual of the male sex to participate in a sport designated for the female sex
Federal Stimulus Spending
On Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Federal Stimulus Spending held a subcommittee markup that had amendments that included over $375 million dollars’ worth of changes. However, there were not any proposed or accepted amendments that would impact the ÃÈÃÃÉçÇø System.
Suicide Prevention
Representative Ann Kelley has introduced House Bill 2136, which would require public schools, charter schools, and public institutions of higher education that issue pupil identification cards to have printed on the card specific phone numbers including those for the National Suicide Prevention and the Crisis Text Line. This bill has a scheduled hearing on March 21, 2022, in the House Health and Mental Health Policy Committee. Senator Justin Brown introduced the Senate companion to this bill (SB1142).
Preventing Religious Discrimination
House Bill 17