The time is now to unshackle teachers and students from the constraints of the U.S. and Missouri departments of education.

On Dec. 18, 2023, the Missouri Department of Elementary Secondary Education (DESE) made public the results from last year’s new cycle of school mandates, Missouri’s School Improvement Plan (MSIP cycle 6). In spite of schools meeting every MSIP requirement, the results indicate perpetual decline.

Is this the fault of the schools?

Five years ago, five school districts fell below DESE’s requirements, threatening their accreditation. This year’s results show that 165 schools (including some charter schools) now fall into this same category of threatened accreditation.

Since school districts are meeting all requirements, why is this decline continuing?

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks having the U.S. Department of Education dictate how Missouri schools function is a good idea. Yet, we actually have our state department of education embracing, welcoming and imposing unnecessary regulations onto your local school district.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Education only requires that a test be taken statewide. However, DESE chooses to use that statewide test punitively. It is a private online test that no one gets to see because it is considered “proprietary and copyrighted,” a private test that no one can explain how it is scored, not even the superintendents or the teachers. Imagine that! Your kids are being subjected to private assessments that no one is able see and no one is able to explain how the scores are determined.

Your children are being reduced to an ever-changing score that only DESE has the authority to understand.

How did we get here?

In 1993, the Missouri General Assembly — under the protest of Republicans — passed The Outstanding Schools Act, in which Missouri led the nation in allowing federal and state government overreach in education. This included adding MSIP requirements that have expanded through the years.

It also established a mandatory minimum property tax levy. Through all this compliance, the morale among both teachers and students continues to erode under DESE’s heavy hand. Our schools have been hijacked through mandates, overregulation and burdensome rules that monopolize your local tax dollars that fund our schools.

In order to truly break free from this never-ending manipulation, we must allow schools to free themselves from the U.S. Department of Education through an accreditation model that works closely with local goals and needs established by district communities. We need to adopt a similar model to that which has been successfully used nationwide for both private and public educational institutions.

Senate Bill 814, the “Education Freedom Act” is an opportunity to give parents, teachers and schools flexibility while ensuring true transparency in both performance and accountability.

I invite all parents, educational leaders and lawmakers to join me in this fight to end the bureaucratic manipulation that has stifled innovation, community and parental input.

Reach out to our office at 573-751-2173 or email at Jill.Carter@Senate.Mo.Gov and help us reclaim our schools.

Sen. Jill Carter represents District 32, covering Jasper and Newton counties.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri senator: Free schools from education department’s rules