Missouri’s Education Shell Game

Missouri State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican representing District 22, recently made a claim during a meeting with her constituents at a local library. During a discussion about teacher pay, she argued that Missouri's low ranking nationwide is misleading. She stated that when all sources of income are considered—not just state contributions—Missouri ranks "about 26th" in the country for teacher pay. She noted that other states channel local sales taxes through the state before distributing education funds, while Missouri allows local funds to stay local. Using this convoluted logic, she implied that the situation really isn’t all that bad.

But don’t be fooled: no matter how Senator Coleman spins it, Missouri teachers are among the nation's lowest paid. Period. According to the National Education Association (NEA), Missouri ranks 50th in average starting teacher salary and 47th in average teacher pay overall. That’s not spin; that’s data. The numbers speak for themselves.

To quote Senator Coleman’s words, “Missouri operates a little differently than some other states, the way that we fund our public schools. Many states collect all the local sales taxes, remit them to the state, and then the state remits back to the groups the proportion according to the state formula of who gets what money. But the state is the arbiter of all that. Missouri doesn't remit a lot of the money up to the state. A lot of our local dollars stay in our local communities at the get-go. So when you hear Missouri pays teachers the least amount of money, that's true if you're looking at the state component only because Missouri doesn't collect and then give back the money. We're actually about 26th in the country when you look at all sources of income on average.”

Perhaps to throw her constituents off the scent of the trail, Senator Coleman conflates two different concepts: the level of state funding for public schools and the actual salaries that teachers receive. This sleight of hand is intended to shift your focus away from lawmakers and onto a vague notion of "the system" or "local control." But the truth is, the state plays a central role in defining school funding rules, setting minimum teacher salaries, and determining how much assistance local districts receive. Pretending otherwise is just plain gaslighting.

Here’s the real problem: Missouri has an ineffective way of funding its schools. The state's primary mechanism is the Foundation Formula, created in 2005 and outlined in state statute, chapter 163. In theory, it calculates how much money each school district requires to adequately educate its students based on factors like student enrollment, weighted student needs (such as special education or low-income status), and local revenue capacity. But here’s the kicker: the state has underfunded this formula for much of its existence. In some years, the gap between what schools were owed and what they received reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Whether or not the Foundation Formula works is moot; the reality is that it was rarely funded to begin with, so the formula is just a meaningless gesture.

Even if the formula were fully funded, it ignores real-world environmental challenges. For example, it does not consider excessive transportation costs faced by rural schools, the additional security needs of urban schools, or the burden of maintaining aging school buildings. It also doesn’t help districts absorb fixed costs when student enrollment declines. The result is a system that may look fair on paper but falls apart in practice, leaving students and teachers to live with the consequences.

To make matters worse, the Republican-controlled legislature has embraced so-called "school choice" policies that divert public funds to private and charter schools. These policies may sound empowering, but in practice, they deepen inequality. School choice generally involves vouchers, which are a subsidy to families who are, in many cases, already sending their children to private schools. For low-income families, the vouchers won’t cover the cost of private school tuition, leaving low-income families without “school choice.” Further, private schools are under no obligation to accept every student. Meanwhile, public schools lose both funding and enrollment, triggering a downward spiral.

We can look to Arizona as a cautionary tale. After adopting a universal voucher program, the state saw explosive cost overruns and minimal oversight. According to a recent investigation by the Grand Canyon Institute and reported upon by ProPublica, hundreds of millions of dollars in education savings accounts (ESAs) were spent with little transparency and few educational gains. Instead of empowering families, the system enriched private vendors and left public schools further weakened.

And now, we face the very real possibility that underfunding will continue indefinitely. According to a recent article in the Missouri Independent, Governor Mike Kehoe said he does not want to spend $300 million in general revenue to fully fund the Foundation Formula. With the Republican supermajority blocking increases for public school and childcare funding, it's clear where the priorities lie.

The bottom line is that when Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman claims that Missouri isn’t doing so badly in teacher pay—ranking "about 26th," she says—we must respond with facts. Missouri's teacher salaries are among the worst in the nation. Our funding formula is flawed, our state legislature refuses to fully support it, and our public schools are under attack through privatization schemes masquerading as choice. We owe our students and teachers better than misleading soundbites. We owe them the truth—and a legislature willing to act on it.