Jess Piper is a major voice fighting for rural schools. In a recent post she points out that education is a target for the Heritage Foundation crowd.
I opened my email a while back to an article by the Missouri Independent. The article is titled, “Missouri Senate looks at funding cuts for ‘low-earning’ college degrees.”
The sponsor of the proposed funding cuts is State Senator Rick Brattin, a lawmaker who once compared abortion to slavery and argued that forced birth “helps women recover from rape or incest.” Yes, he really said that.
Senator Brattin leads the Missouri Senate Education Committee. Senator Brattin has no experience in education and does not hold a college degree. And not to sound elitist or snobby, but our current Governor, Mike Kehoe, also does not hold a college degree. He was preceded by Governor Mike Parson, who did not earn a degree.
I do feel a little uncomfortable speaking about the education my Governors and lawmakers haven’t attained, but I can’t help but acknowledge that Missouri has ranked dead last in the country for a few years now for teacher pay and classroom funding. So many years under Governors and lawmakers who do not prioritize education is glaring. It is harming our children and the state.
I am also not saying every profession should require a degree, but I do think that those making decisions about education should have a degree in education…or a degree in general.
The fact is that most of the people making decisions about education in Missouri are not teachers or administrators. Governor Kehoe created a School Funding Modernization Task Force, and there is not one current public school teacher appointed to the task force, but there is a member of the Soybean Association and one from the Farm Bureau and two members from groups that send Missouri taxpayer money to private religious schools.
But, back to Brattin’s legislation, SB 1617:
The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, said the bill falls in line with new federal regulations and a federal earnings test, which evaluates what is considered “low-earning.”
Do you know which Missouri degree could be eliminated by that standard?
Teaching.
Missouri ranks 50th in the nation in starting teacher pay.