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Sept. 10, 2024 |  By: Annelise Hanshaw - Missouri Independent

Missouri education department says state funding for school year is $100 million short

a classroom

By Annelise Hanshaw - Missouri Independent

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is asking for over $174 million in supplemental funding for this school year after receiving $1 billion less in appropriations compared to the previous year.

When the State Board of Education reviewed the budget bill approved by lawmakers in May, Board Chair Charlie Shields predicted that “the mother of all supplemental budgets” would come, possibly in a special session.

In its meeting Tuesday, the board approved a supplemental budget with a high request from the state in general revenue and a budget for next year with increasing costs associated with an education bill that was recently signed 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, DESE’s commissioner of financial and administrative services, told the State Board of Education Tuesday. “That might be the understatement of the year,” he added.

The supplemental request includes over $100 million from the state’s general revenue fund. Last year, the department asked for under $2 million in state funding.

Nearly half of the general-revenue request — $48 million — is from changes to the formula that funds school districts and charter schools. The board did not discuss what changes drove the supplemental, but multiple additions to the formula will boost funding in its fiscal year 2026 request.

Other drivers of the expense is an increase in the early childhood special education caseload, which the department requests $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 said. “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 is also requesting $15 million for a grant program it provides to schools with under 350 students. The education package passed by the legislature this year increased the size of the program, so the supplemental request is to meet that demand, Monsees said.

He noted that budget instructions for fiscal year 2026 direct the department to specify mandatory new decision items. For that, the department requests 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 sizable 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.

Requests from state agencies are due to the Missouri Office of Administration by Oct. 1.