Missouri State Board of Education

If approved, Missouri's first funding formula increase since 2020 would cost taxpayers an additional $120 million.

Schools in Missouri are still rebounding from the pandemic's impact on student learning. State education leaders say they're also grappling with student mental health issues, chronic absenteeism and teacher shortages.

At least 35 school boards have passed resolutions asking the Missouri Board of Education to convene a blue ribbon commission to study the formula for funding public schools, which each year adds up to less and less of their overall budget.

Some Missouri school districts have turned to a 2016 state law that empowers them to file charges against teachers who break their employment contracts. The process can lead to the suspension of a teacher’s license. Other school districts have used the law to impose financial penalties as high as $10,000.

This is the first time Missouri schools are being rated under a new accountability system. Kansas City Public Schools — which just regained full accreditation last year — sits just above the range for provisional accreditation, while Hickman Mills would remain provisional. However, the state won't use these results to change accreditation status until the 2023-2024 school year.

Kansas Democrats can't seem to overcome the urban-rural divide that's keeping them out of the state legislature, despite some gains in Johnson County. Plus: A new law is changing how Missouri students are taught to read.

Education leaders want Missouri teachers to lean into research-backed literacy instruction methods, known as the science of reading.

Missouri state law sets the base salary for a beginning teacher at $25,000, the second-lowest in the nation. A Blue Ribbon Commission on teacher recruitment and retention found that raising salaries would cost the state around $29.5 million.

Charlie Shields, the state board of education’s president, said Missouri is at a "point of crisis" as a state commission tries to come up with solutions for its chronic teacher shortage.

Missouri’s average starting teacher salary ranks as one of the lowest in the nation. Educators recounted that new and veteran teachers often have to find second jobs to make ends meet.

In the Kansas City area, universities have been some of the most prominent sponsors of the public charter schools. But in just the past few years, several ended the relationships or saw charter schools removed by the state.

To address a statewide substitute teacher shortage, Missouri’s Board of Education approved a new emergency amendment to give prospective substitute teachers the option to take a 20-hour online certification course.