EDITORIAL: Missouri, use your money to fund schools and pay teachers better
Mar. 19—Missouri's education system needs help; now is the time for lawmakers to ensure that help is provided.
Our state is 49th nationally in funding for public schools according to a 2021 state auditor's report. Missouri provided about 32% of the aid to K-12 public schools in 2020; the bulk of funding came from local sources such as property taxes.
The problem with the dearth of state funding — nationally, the average level of state aid to schools is about 45% — is that state aid is consistent on a per-pupil basis, but property taxes vary wildly between districts. Those in wealthy areas are well-funded. Poorer communities, rural areas and inner urban schools often struggle.
The problem has been getting worse, according to state Auditor Nicole Gallaway, because state funding has not kept up with rising costs. "When you adjust for inflation — how far that dollar will stretch in today's spending environment — that number has steadily decreased over the past ten years. If you compared 2020 to 2011, it's about a 9% decrease if you adjust for inflation," the auditor said in her report.
The shift by some districts in our area to four-day school weeks as a money-saving measure demonstrates the difficulty. Not only have they shifted to save money, officials have also said that the four-day work week helps as a recruiting tool to offset the lower teacher salaries that such districts offer.
In fact, low teacher pay is a problem for districts across Missouri. The state requires school districts to pay beginning teachers a minimum annual salary of $25,000 and a minimum salary of $33,000 for a full-time teacher with a master's degree and at least 10 years of experience. Missouri is 50th in average annual starting salary for teachers nationally — at $32,970, nearly 20% less than the national average starting wage of $41,163 per year, according to the National Education Association.
We aren't keeping up, even regionally. Kansas is 33rd nationally for starting teacher salaries, and a stiff competitor for educators.
Arkansas rated 49th in the same survey that marked Missouri 50th, but Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson last year signed legislation to raise the target median annual pay for public school teachers by $2,000 this school year. The Fayetteville School District just committed to paying its teachers a minimum salary of $50,000 effective July 1.
Oklahoma is 35th, and Gov. Kevin Stitt proposed a plan in his annual State of the State speech that would pay some Oklahoma teachers up to $100,000.
Missouri needs to confront its shortfall in state funding and boost teachers' salaries. With the state flush, now is the time to solve the funding puzzle. As House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Cody Smith, R-Carthage, has said, "... We've got a whole bunch of federal money and a whole bunch of state money, as well just giant piles of cash available to the state."
Let's put a significant portion of that to work in education. As Founding Father John Adams said: "The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it."
