Over 150 people filled the Greg Prather Gymnasium at Santa Fe High School on Tuesday, Mar. 24 to learn more about the challenges facing Santa Fe and other rural school districts across Missouri.

Superintendents from six nearby districts joined Santa Fe’s Derek Lark on a panel discussing changes to school policy and funding mechanisms being sought by state lawmakers. After the forum, Lark told KMMO News he was pleased by the turnout.
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Many of those issues were addressed by Duane Martin, an attorney who represents several public school districts around the state. In his presentation, Martin suggested that policymakers in Jefferson City were, in his words, “deserting” Missouri’s rural schools, arguing that policies like decreasing state funding, enacting unfunded mandates, and seeking the establishment of open enrollment, were adversely impacting rural districts more than schools in larger communities. Lark says he hopes community members will express their views and concerns about rural education to their neighbors and elected officials.

Rep. Terry Thompson (R-Lexington) and Sen. Kurtis Gregory (R-Marshall) were among those in attendance who visited with residents after the 90-minute forum, as did county commissioners from Lafayette and Saline counties. Discussion also focused on efforts to change the tax code, namely the ballot measure facing voters in most of Missouri’s counties next month that would grant tax credits on a taxpayer’s primary residence if the assessed value increases by five percent, and an effort by lawmakers to transition Missouri from income tax collections to sales tax revenues.