While the cost of educating students continues to rise each year, the funding Missouri schools receive from the state to pay for teacher salaries and classroom supplies would remain flat under recent recommendations from the State Board of Education. If those recommendations are enacted into the next budget, there would be a $270 million gap between the cost of educating students and the amount school districts receive from the state. This means local public schools will need to make tough choices in the coming years to balance their budgets, like cutting teachers or support staff or student programs.
Missouri’s Foundation Formula is the calculation used by the state to determine how much state funding is needed to provide a baseline level of per student funding for all Missouri school districts. The cost of fully funding the Foundation Formula grows each year to keep pace with rising inflation. But for the first time in a decade, Missouri will no longer reimburse districts for the full amount required under Missouri’s Foundation Formula, based on current requests.
Missouri’s Local Public Schools Face a $270 million State Budget Gap in FY2028
| Fiscal Year | Appropriation | Full Funding | Funding Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY26 | $4.28 B | $4.28 B | N/A |
| FY27 | $4.28 B | $4.47 B | ($190 M) |
| FY28 (Department Request) | $4.28 B | $4.55 B | ($270 M) |
Source: Missouri State Board of Education Business Meeting September 15, 2026
A $270 million shortfall in the Foundation Formula is a $315 gap per student .
Statewide, it is the equivalent of the average salary of over 4,500 teachers or over 8,100 support staff (such as bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, paraeducators, and office staff) across all of Missouri’s local school districts[1].
This could result in a gap of over $1,000 per student in the school districts that rely most heavily on state funding.
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– Missouri’s own formula for what schools need calls for a $388 million increase in funding in the next budget year. But in September, the State Board of Education instead opted to request flat funding.
– Based on that decision, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) does not even request full funding in its recently released departmental budget book.
– Schools were already underfunded by $190 million in the current state budget, with an additional cut to student transportation.
– What’s more, policymakers used one-time budget tricks to balance the budget in the current year. Because they used temporary measures this year, DESE needs $118 million in new general revenue funds just to reach the flat funding level requested next year.
| Increase Needed to Reach Full Funding | $388.7 M |
| – To replace FY27 one-time funds (e.g. blind pension) | $118.9 M |
| – To fund FY27 shortfall (not requested) | $190.6 M |
| – To fund FY28 calculated increase (not requested) | $79.1 M |
| Increase Requested by DESE | $118.9 M |
| FY2028 Funding Gap | ($269.8 M) |
- Average cut per student based on enrollment for each school district Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Finance Data and Statistics Summary for All Districts/Charters (accessed February 2026).; Number of teachers and support staff based on average teacher and education support professional salaries in Missouri National Education Association, Educator Pay in America (accessed September 2026).
