The Missouri Legislature approved $50 million in public funding for the MOScholars program during the 2025 legislative session, and the Missouri Treasurer’s Office recently announced that more than half of the funding—about $26 million—has already been distributed. The rapid distribution of funds reflects high demand for the scholarships provided by MOScholars.
Why the high demand? In short, parents have diverse goals and students have diverse needs—it should be no surprise that the locally zoned public school isn’t the best fit for every student. MOScholars permits families to seek alternatives that better align with their children’s individual needs and family values.
Predictably, the MOScholars expansion has faced resistance, most notably from teachers’ unions. The largest teachers’ union in Missouri—the approximately 45,000-member Missouri National Education Association (MNEA)—attempted to delay the allocation of the funds in June. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the organization remains undeterred: A representative of the MNEA, attorney Loretta Haggard, acknowledged that while efforts to block the spending this year are effectively over, they will try again next year.
The union’s legal arguments against MOScholars are procedural, but the deeper concern is that MOScholars will divert revenue from public schools. Specifically, the fear is that enrollment-driven state funding for MOScholars students will not go to public schools. However, local funding will still be available, and of course, the public schools will no longer bear the cost of educating students who use MOScholars to exercise choice.
The outcome of this legal battle could set an important precedent for Missouri’s school choice landscape. Even with the $50 million MOScholars appropriation, the choice environment in Missouri is more restrictive than in many other states. Take Texas as an example—it passed legislation this year providing $1 billion in public funds for its own version of MOScholars.
Despite the MNEA’s predictable efforts to undo recent progress, our lawmakers should continue to push for school choice for more Missouri families.
