Page 123 – Show-Me Institute

Listen: Dr. Susan Pendergrass on The Missouri School Rankings Project

Posted on December 16, 2021January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

Missouri schools are failing to teach the core subjects of reading and math, and the most recent test scores show that students are falling further behind. In response to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) failure to perform one of its most basic functions, the Show-Me Institute, in conjunction with Show-Me Opportunity, launched The Missouri School Rankings Project and MoSchoolRankings.org.

On November 18 in St. Louis, Missouri, Susan Pendergrass, director of research and education policy, presented her findings from the Missouri School Rankings Project and give an overview of how to use the website.

Listen to the full event:

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Sticher

Listen on SoundCloud

An Updated Look at Tax-Increment Financing

Posted on December 15, 2021January 13, 2026 by Corianna Baier

Tax-increment financing (TIF) is a widely used economic development incentive in which property tax revenues are redistributed back to developers. Millions of tax dollars are diverted away from the state, cities, and other taxing districts each year. This report takes an updated look at the use of TIF in Missouri, with data from the 2020 Annual TIF Report produced by the Missouri Department of Revenue. Ultimately, TIF has many procedural problems and little proof of success. With millions of dollars on the line, it’s time for Missouri and its cities to rethink the use of TIF.

Click here to view the report.

Changes to Tax Incentives in the City of St. Louis?

Posted on December 14, 2021January 13, 2026 by David Stokes

The Post-Dispatch ran a story recently about changes being made to how tax incentives are being awarded by the City of St. Louis. The new mayor had campaigned on making changes to the incentive game, and she has, to some extent, made good on her word.

From the story:

The city’s new mayor vetoed two developer tax breaks that she said were too generous. And then she held up final approval of incentive packages for two other projects that had long enjoyed almost unwavering political support — the City Foundry food hall complex and another phase of development in the Cortex tech district.

We have commended these changes to the old way of doing business. For too long, the city has pumped subsidies into the parts of the city that need them the least. So, points given for being more disciplined with the subsidies.

However, it seems that the quick and easy way for developers to get the subsidies they want is simply to make a “donation” to affordable housing. From the story (emphasis and note added):

Of the deals negotiated so far by the Jones administration, a theme has emerged: developers who want incentives are likely to be pushed to include a contribution to affordable housing.

The City Foundry deal required the developer to contribute $1.8 million to the city’s affordable housing trust fund, which helps finance affordable projects around the city. [Three other examples follow in the article.]

We love our subsidies in Missouri for affordable/low-income housing. At the state level, low-income housing tax credits have been abused for years. Now the city’s affordable housing trust fund is all the rage. But you know what? St. Louis (and Missouri) don’t have an affordable housing issue. In fact, a report just came out that says that St. Louis is the only metro area in the country where rents are declining. From the report:

There is one outlier among major American cities bucking this trend. Rents fell 4 percent in St. Louis, and it was the only metro to see a decrease in rent in October compared to a year earlier.

The low housing costs here are a result of many factors, both good (limited land-use regulations) and bad (high crime, etc.). But increasing the subsidies for affordable housing is the least of our region’s needs. And that, come to think of it, may be exactly the point. Solving crime in a high-crime area is very hard. Addressing housing costs in an area with low housing costs is, well, easy.

There are many good reasons for the City of St. Louis to substantially tighten up the tax subsidy process. Using it as a pressure point to get added “donations” to a fund that purports to solve the one problem the city doesn’t have is not one of them.

Even Elon Musk Wouldn’t Support Missouri’s EV Tax Credit Bill

Posted on December 14, 2021January 13, 2026 by Jakob Puckett

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining popularity in Missouri and across the country. Thousands of Missourians buy EVs each year; Kansas City is one of the fastest-growing EV markets in the country. Nationwide, EVs are expected to be about 25 percent of new car sales in 2030.

So what do some in the Missouri Legislature want to do with this burgeoning market? Subsidize it, of course. A bill prefiled in the Missouri House would subsidize Missourians for a purchase many are already making by giving out a thousand-dollar refundable tax credit for each EV purchase.

This is so redundant and unnecessary that even Elon Musk wouldn’t support it.

In a recent interview, Musk favored ending subsidies of any kind for all vehicles, whether gasoline or battery-powered.

When asked about the possibility of an up-to $12,500-per-EV tax credit being considered in Congress, Musk criticized it as unnecessary. While most makes of electric vehicles still qualify for the existing $7,500 federal tax credit, Tesla’s cars—which made up over two thirds of all EV purchases this year—haven’t for several years. Admittedly, Musk’s market power may account for some of his opposition to EV tax credits.

Musk also criticized the $7.5 billion dedicated to building EV charging stations in the recently passed federal infrastructure bill, saying that if gas stations don’t need support, EV charging stations shouldn’t either. If he doesn’t support these subsidies, I can’t imagine he’d support Saint Louis-area governments mandating new construction and property renovations being built with EV charging stations.

If the godfather (or Dogefather?) of electric vehicles thinks EV tax credits and subsidized charging stations are unnecessary, shouldn’t we?

Innovative Springfield School Up for $1 Million Prize

Posted on December 13, 2021January 13, 2026 by Michael McShane

The Discovery School of Springfield has been named a finalist for the STOP Award. Presented by the Center for Education Reform and Forbes, the award is intended to “ensure that families, now and in the future, get what they deserve: access to individualized learning opportunities for their students, offered in supportive environments, alongside their peers.”

The Discovery School has an amazing story. When the coronavirus struck in March of 2020, the Discovery Center, a children’s science museum, worked around the clock to transform into a licensed childcare center to continue students’ education even if their schools were closed to in-person instruction. Every member of the team agreed to work in person instead of working from home. By August, it had cultivated a community of learners who wanted to keep the good times going. The Discovery Center leased and renovated a building that used to be part of Everest College and created a space for children to do their virtual learning in small learning pods. By January of 2021, it was ready to launch a standalone school. It currently operates as a private school for students in Springfield. The STOP award created an informative webpage on the school, and it is worth checking out.

Simply by being named a finalist, the school is guaranteed at least $250,000 in prize money. The full prize will be announced December 14th at Forbes’ annual 30 under 30 event.

Missouri Is 49th in a Meaningless Statistic!

Posted on December 10, 2021January 13, 2026 by Michael McShane

Earlier this week a headline came across my Twitter feed blaring “Missouri ranked No. 49 in state K-12 funding in 2020.” It was from earlier this year, but the article somehow started making the rounds again. Maybe it has something to do with the Missouri Legislature prefiling bills for the 2022 session. Who am I to speculate?

Anyway, when the average person reads that headline, what do you think they see? It is most likely that they would think that Missouri is second to last of all the 50 states in what it spends on education. That would be a perfectly reasonable reading of that particular arrangement of words. It would also be wrong.

The article covers a report released by the Missouri Auditor’s office that examined spending trends in Missouri and compared them to other states around the country. Did that report find that Missouri was second to last in the amount of money that it spends? It did not.

In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2020 Missouri was 27th in school spending in the United States, with $11,249 in current spending per pupil per year. Importantly, this is not adjusted for cost of living. Even without that, Missouri is right in the middle of the pack.

No, what the auditor’s report did was look at the percentage of student funding that comes from the state and then compared that to the percentage of funding that comes from the state in other systems around the country, using data from a report by the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union.

Now, we can set aside for a moment relying on the NEA, which has an obvious vested interest in increasing school spending. But we can still ask what, if anything, we should do with this information. Show-Me Institute analysts have been arguing that Missouri’s funding formula is broken for years. Reforming the funding formula is part of the 2022 Missouri Blueprint. Updating the formula to accurately measure local property tax wealth and thus local effort would be a huge improvement, as would treating charter schools better and providing more flexibility to parents as to where their children can take their funding. That said, using contrived statistics packaged deceptively to make that point isn’t right.

How much we should spend on schools has become a terribly muddled question. When polled, 58 percent of Missourians say that we should be spending more on education. That is, until they are told how much we actually spend. Then it drops to 32 percent. (Interestingly, it drops to 31 percent among school parents.)

Reports like the one from the auditor’s office do not help educate Missourians as to how much we actually spend and how that money is being put to use. It makes the worthy cause of funding formula reform more difficult. And that is a shame.

Podcast: 2022 Priorities, a Win in Webster, and Fight for $15 in Jeff. City

Posted on December 10, 2021January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

Susan Pendergrass, David Stokes, and Elias Tsapelas join Zach Lawhorn to discuss legislative priorities for 2022, the rejection of a TIF in Webster Groves, and a bid to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for state workers.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Sticher

Listen on SoundCloud

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Posted on December 9, 2021January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

Show-Me Institute analysts have been saying for quite some time that parents need choices when it comes to their children’s education. Those who disagree have often relied on the ridiculous argument that giving parents choices will make bad schools worse, since anyone in their right mind would abandon them. But finally, we may be seeing reason from those folks.

The Missouri Board of Education released its 2022 Legislative Priorities and, surprisingly, giving families the option of enrolling in a district other than the one in which they live made the list. Interdistrict choice is not a new idea—44 states and the District of Columbia allow it—but it would certainly be new for Missouri. Currently, only students who can demonstrate that they have a transportation hardship due to natural barriers that make the distance to their assigned school farther away than a school in a neighboring district can apply for interdistrict choice. The state board of education, seemingly, would like school choice extended to every student, regardless of their transportation situation.

It should be said that it’s a tough time for public education in Missouri. District- and school-level test scores for the prior school year were released this week and an initial look at the data suggests the results are pretty dismal. In many districts there are not enough teachers, substitutes, or bus drivers. At a recent hearing of the Missouri Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education, the state school board association seemed to be at odds with the superintendents and even with rural educators—two groups with which it is typically aligned. Perhaps the news has made its way to Jefferson City that, for the near future at least, “it’s the parents, stupid.” Finally, parents are being heeded as a political force that shows up and votes.

Whatever the reason, I look forward to seeing the Missouri Board of Education press for its legislative agenda. I look forward to seeing members of the board in committee hearings giving testimony on the need for parents to have options beyond their assigned public schools. I look forward to joining forces in pressing for this policy. I hope that it is pursued with integrity.

Virtual Town Hall: Ideas to Move Missouri Forward in 2022

Posted on December 8, 2021January 13, 2026 by Show-Me Institute Staff

Download a copy of the 2022 Blueprint here

The 2022 Blueprint: Moving Missouri Forward presents 14 policy ideas aimed at moving Missouri forward to a brighter future. The Blueprint covers a broad range of issues—from education to health care, from public pensions to corporate welfare, and from tax policy to government transparency. Our expert policy team has thoroughly researched and analyzed the problems facing our state today, and their work informs the policy solutions that follow. We believe that with the right policies Missouri could lead the nation in wealth, quality education, and a vibrant and flourishing civil society.

On December 8, 2021, Show-Me Institute held a virtual town hall to discuss the ideas presented in the 2022 Blueprint.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Sticher

Listen on SoundCloud

The work of the Show-Me Institute would not be possible without the generous support of people who are inspired by the vision of liberty and free enterprise. We hope you will join our efforts and become a Show-Me Institute sponsor.