JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri lawmakers hope to incentivize school districts by offering more money to be in session five days a week.
Roughly 30% of all Missouri school districts were only in session four days a week this year. The law allowing shortened weeks was passed more than a decade ago to help schools save money after the recession, but now it’s being used as a perk to hire and retain teachers, which lawmakers want to prevent.
In a state that is suffering from a large shortage of educators, 168 districts have implemented a shortened week. That’s 25 more schools than last year and an increase of more than 100 schools in the last five years.
“The five-day school week has always been successful for years and decades and decades,” Gov. Mike Parson said to our Missouri Capitol Bureau Chief Emily Manley during an exclusive interview to talk about the legislation. “It’s like all of a sudden we go through COVID and it’s like panic mode that we can’t be able to do this.”
It’s a large legislative package full of money to send to schools and make changes to the education system.
The full article is available at ozarksfirst.com.
(Story by Emily Manley, ozarksfirst.com)
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