The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education seeks over $174 million in supplemental funding for this school year after receiving $1 billion less in appropriations than the previous year.
When the state Board of Education reviewed the budget bill approved by lawmakers in May, Board Chair Charlie Shields predicted “the mother of all supplemental budgets” would arrive, possibly in a special session.
In a meeting on September 10, the board approved a supplemental budget with a high request from the state in general revenue and a budget for next year associated with the increasing costs of an education bill that was recently assigned into law.
“We can’t assume that this is all going to be able to be funded. There’s going to be some really hard decisions and prioritization that has to happen throughout the process,” Kari Monsees, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner of financial and administrative services, was quoted as telling the State Board of Education. “That might be the understatement of the year.”
The supplemental request includes over $100 million from the state’s general revenue fund. The previous year, the department had asked for under $2 million in state funding.
Almost half of the general revenue request – $48 million – is from formula changes that fund school districts and charter schools. The board did not discuss what changes drove the supplemental request, but multiple additions to the formula will boost funding in its 2026 fiscal year request.
Other drivers include an increase in the yearly childhood special education caseload, which the department has requested $20.8 million to manage.
“The last three or four years, we’ve been fairly flat in (early childhood special education enrollment) because of the COVID impact,” Monsees stated. “We had fewer students entering those programs for a few years, and so we didn’t need much in the way of additional funding. Well, that kind of came home to roost last year, and the numbers are up.”
The department requests an additional $15 million for a grant program that it provides to schools with a student body of under 350. The education package passed by the legislature this year increased the program’s size. Monsees said the supplemental request is to meet that demand.
He has noted that budget instructions for the 2026 fiscal year direct the department to specify mandatory new decision items. The department has requested an increase of $810 million from this year’s appropriation of $8.73 billion, of which $719 million would come from the state’s general fund.
A large portion of the request is powered by expenses in the education package passed by lawmakers this year, which had a $230 million fiscal note for next year.
The budget and its issues came despite a 3.2% bump in pay for education department employees. At the time, Monsees stated that he was concerned about the childcare subsidy program, which encourages childcare providers to service low-income families.
The bill, at the core of it, expanded the K012 tax credit scholarships, called MOScholars, but also included public education priorities, such as a raise to base pay for teachers and scholarships for future educators. Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge, a board member from Pasadena Hills, noted at the time the law’s projected price tag of $468 million when fully implemented.
“Do you feel like this budget adequately incorporates all the mandates outlined in this bill?” she asked Monsees in May. “There is a lot of concern from the educational community that there are a lot of unfunded mandates in this bill.”
State agencies’ requests for funding goals must be submitted to the Missouri Office of Administration by October 1.
