by | Feb 3, 2025
Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton (property of Missourinet)
Senate Democratic Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, is critical of Gov. Mike Kehoe’s $53.7 billion budget proposal, saying it would underfund K-12 public schools by about $300 million.
Beck accuses Republicans of wanting to lower the state’s commitment to public education. He’s critical of Kehoe’s $50 million request in state funding for private schooling scholarships, alleging that it only benefits the rich.
“That’s a big problem for me,” Sen. Beck said. “I mean, it seems they can find $50 million to, again, subsidize rich parents sending their kids to private schools, but they can’t find the $300 million that is state law to fund our schools and help our kids across, the vast majority of our kids in public schools.”
Beck said that 95% of Missouri kids get their education through public schools and that the proposed cut will have a negative impact.
“When you start pulling away from that to give to the rich folks to subsidize whatever they’re doing or you create, in a lot of cases, charter schools, when you create a bunch of schools that doesn’t fit the population and you’re paying for school buildings, it’s just taking money away from the actual effect of having a great teacher in a classroom teaching kids,” he said.
Kehoe has issued an executive order to create a task force to update the formula used to fund public schools. He said the current foundation formula has “gotten out of control.” But Beck believes that the move will underfund K-12 public schools.
“It’s where your kids go to school, and everybody knows that. A lot of times it’s the entire identity of their small town if they’re a rural area,” he said. “We’re proud to have our good schools. It keeps your home values great. It makes your community strong. When you start chipping that away, you’re chipping away at the fabric of our communities.”
Find more about the budget proposal here.
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