JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A legislative step away from teacher tenure protections is going to the governor’s desk.

The push toward a merit-pay system for educators only affects St. Louis City School District employees, but the move could have more far-reaching implications.

The Missouri legislature revived a comprehensive education package from Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, on Thursday despite an overwhelming defeat of a version roughly three times its size in the House earlier this week. While House members wanted to eliminate the voluntary merit-pay system, senators insisted that the measure, controversial among the statewide education community, be included.

“It will be interesting to see how many teachers participate in that,” Mr. Shields said of the merit-pay system. “It’s a pretty big piece of legislation.”

The bill gives St. Louis teachers the option to give up their tenure, which protects their permanent job status, for an opportunity to earn more money based on their performance under the Teacher Choice Compensation Package. Participating teachers would be able to earn up to $15,000 in additional income for superior performance based on student test scores, evaluations from students, supervisors and parents, and possibly other benchmarks set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Sen. Jane Cunningham, a St. Louis County Republican, praised the bill for including the controversial measure and setting up St. Louis as a state “pilot” for the compensation package.

“For the first time in the state of Missouri, we got merit pay,” Ms. Cunningham said.

SB 291 also eliminates tenure protections for non-certified employees in the St. Louis school district.

Rep. Martin Rucker, a St. Joseph Democrat who also sits on the St. Joseph Board of Education, opposes the compensation program because teachers who opt out of their tenure have no recourse if they dislike the merit system. The choice can’t be reversed.

The shorter bill still includes a fix to a technical glitch from the Proposition A gaming money voters approved in 2008.

Legislators stacked it with many other changes, such as allowing local school boards to vote to establish four-day school weeks, directing the Joint Committee on Education to study open enrollment and only requiring districts to make up 10 school days because of inclement weather, among other changes.

Also in the education package is an attempt to curb or at least delay high-school dropouts. The bill extends the drop-out age to 17 or when the student completes at least 16 credits. Students now can withdraw from high school at age 16.

“Kids need to stop thinking about their next birthday and start thinking about the next class they’re going to take,” Joplin School District Superintendent C.J. Huff told the Associated Press. Mr. Huff came up with the credit-hour requirement.

Deliberations in the Statehouse sent another bill from an area lawmaker to Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk Thursday. The House passed a measure that would allow electric companies to build costs from energy conservation programs into the utilities’ rates. SB 376 from Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, is an attempt to help the utilities recover costs when they partner with customers on greener ways to operate, in lieu of building more coal and nuclear power plants. It also requires the state to buy appliances that meet energy efficiency specifications under the Energy Star program, part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effort.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.