JEFFERSON CITY—State Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, announced his opposition today to proposed constitutional Amendment 3, which, if approved by voters, would profoundly alter the way Missouri’s teachers are evaluated, limit local school districts’ ability to hire and dismiss educators as it sees fit, and  create statewide, standardized testing to judge teacher performance. The proposed amendment was recently certified by the secretary of state for inclusion on the Nov. 4, 2014 ballot.

“This amendment will take away local control of our schools and hand it to Jefferson City bureaucrats,” said Sen. LeVota. “The amendment creates a one-size-fits-all, top-down mandate, shifting local control away from parents, teachers and school districts, while implementing unfunded, statewide standardized tests. It moves our schools in the wrong direction and forces a one-size-fits-all approach that is wrong for our students and our schools."