The Missouri Legislature is scrambling to pass the next state budget by Friday’s deadline.
During Wednesday’s House and Senate negotiations, committee members went back and forth about what level to raise Missouri’s minimum K-12 teacher pay to. State Representative Rusty Black, a Republican from northwest Missouri’s Chillicothe, says the education community in his district prefers a $34,000 minimum.
State Senator Karla Eslinger, a Republican from southern Missouri’s Wasola, says she has experience with school budgets and prefers $38,000 annually.
Members ultimately landed on designating nearly $22,000,000 to boost the pay from $25,000 to $38,000 through a state and local match program. Another compromise fully funds the state’s share of K-12 school transportation for the first time since the 1990-91 school year.
The House could pass the budget on Thursday and then the plan would move to the Senate.
