Effort to Boost Missouri’s Minimum Teacher Pay Has Been Derailed

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (Missourinet) Missouri’s K-12 public school teachers might not get a base pay increase after all. The Missouri House Budget Committee has removed the governor’s plan to boost the minimum pay from the current 25-thousand-dollars to 38-thousand-dollars annually. The minimum has not been increased in about 16 years. Committee chairman Cody Smith, of southwest Missouri’s Carthage, agrees that teachers should be paid more but he questions if Governor Parson’s 22-million-dollar plan is the best way to go.

The committee still backs designating 20-million-dollars for teacher recruitment and retention grants.