Education Bill Raises Teacher Pay

Gov. Mike Parson on May 8 signed an education bill that raises teacher pay to a $40,000 per year baseline.

The bill was opposed by the Missouri School Boards Association, which did not see it as being financially sustainable.

Melissa Randol, executive director of MSBA, told Missourinet that if the state cannot deliver on funding, districts will be forced to find ways to compensate.

“If the school is not able to deliver on those funding increases, particularly as it relates to the mandatory increases in teacher salaries, the way it’s drafted in this bill, the school district would be penalized and in such a significant way that we could see, particularly our small and rural school districts, we could see many of them being forced to close over time,” Randol said.

In his own press release, Parson touted his longstanding support for teachers.

"We ask a lot of our educators when it comes to teaching and caring for our children. Together, this legislation supports Missouri students, teachers, and families with more educational opportunities to succeed – including additional investments in pre-k – while ensuring our teachers earn a better wage,” Parson said.

The Webb City Sentinel reported earlier this month that 41 public school districts addressed a letter urging Parson to veto the bill.

“[I]ncreasing the minimum salary yearly per the consumer price index (CPI) or inflation does not allow for a guarantee for state funding to follow indefinitely. Our member school districts are in complete agreement with this provision, except for the lack of any guarantees in the bill for required future funding,” the members wrote. Once this bill is signed into law, it is codified, and all schools must pay those current and future increases indefinitely, regardless of economic conditions or whether the state can meet its obligation to future generations of teachers. If this bill becomes law, our member schools and all public schools in Missouri must commit to future spending at a rate we have no reasonable idea if we can meet. In any year, if the state cannot fund this expensive expectation, schools would need to raise their local taxes or begin to lay off the very teachers this bill was supposed to be helping.

The bill also will increase salaries for teachers with a master’s degree and 10-plus years experience to a minimum of $48,000 per year by 2027 and increases all teachers’ salaries by the January Consumer Prince Index (CPI) report, with a 3 percent cap annually.

The bills also increase funding for early childhood education programs, increase the funding limit and access for Missouri’s Empowerment Scholarship accounts; incentives districts in larger municipalities to have five-day school weeks; establishment the Elementary Literacy Fund; increase the small school grant funding program from $15 million to $30 million per year and authorizes charter schools in Boone County.