Dean Plocher’s last year as speaker of the Missouri House wasn’t supposed to go this way.
The Republican from Des Peres was riding high at the end of the 2023 legislative session, able to point to big wins while pinning any disappointments on continued dysfunction in the state Senate. And he had amassed an impressive campaign war chest he hoped would help carry him to the lieutenant governor’s office in the upcoming elections.
Entering the third month of the 2024 session, things couldn’t get much worse.
Plocher has been accused over the last few months of, among other things, pushing for the House to enter into a contract with a private company outside the normal bidding process; threatening retaliation against legislative staff who pushed back on that contract; improperly firing a potential whistleblower; and filing false expense reports for travel already paid for by his campaign.
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The allegations sparked a formal investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which hired an outside attorney to lead the inquiry. He’s also faced calls for his resignation by several members of the GOP supermajority.
Missouri Republicans call for investigation of Dean Plocher, raise idea of resignation
Plocher’s hold on his speakership remains tenuous, and his campaign for lieutenant governor is now considered a longshot. His top legislative staff are gone, either fired or resigned in the wake of the scandals. Nearly every week a new story about him seems to emerge, and nearly every press conference he convenes of late ends with him storming out.
Yet Plocher remains indignant, denying any wrongdoing and vowing to remain speaker.
“I clearly have no intention to resign,” he told reporters earlier this month.
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But as the ethics probe drags on — the committee’s work is considered confidential until a final report is issued — it casts a foreboding shadow over the session and colors the perception of Plocher’s every move.
“It’s definitely a dark cloud that’s overhanging everything that we do here,” said House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat.
Scrutiny and suspicion
The ethics investigation continues behind the scenes, but its day-to-day impact is playing out in more subtle ways.
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Plocher’s decision to wait more than a month to refer to a committee any bills filed by two Republicans who called for him to step down a speaker drew accusations that he was using his office to retaliate against critics.
State Rep. Mazzie Christensen, a Republican from Bethany, previously told The Independent that she was “absolutely being punished” for her public criticism of Plocher.
Questions also swirled after Plocher created a new committee to review House rules and policy, with some fearing it was an attempt by the speaker to give himself more authority over legislative staff.
Those concerns were fueled, in part, by public statements he and his surrogates made trying to pin the blame for his woes on disgruntled staff working against him and the earlier allegations of retaliating against House employees.
The fact that the committee meets in the only House hearing room without live streaming capabilities did little to soothe these concerns.
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But state Rep. Paula Brown, a Democrat from Hazelwood who Plocher appointed co-chair of the policy review committee, said the speaker didn’t even talk to her about the committee before she found out she was helping lead it and has provided no direction for how the committee should work or where it should focus.
In its handful of meetings this year, the policy review committee spent much of its time on things like ambiguity in House rules and discussing possible changes to clear up questions about things like employee leave and the chamber’s discrimination policies.
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Brown, who also serves on the House Ethics Committee, insists there is no cause for concern.
“I don’t anticipate major changes. A lot of this will be clean up,” Brown told The Independent late last month, noting that the panel can only make suggestions that would still have to be approved by the House Administration and Accounts Committee.
The suspicion surrounding Plocher occasionally even rubs off on others.
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For example, following the revelations about Plocher’s false expense reports, Republican state Sen. Andrew Koenig publicly demanded the speaker “resign immediately” because he “violated the same campaign finance rule on nine different occasions and misused taxpayer funds.”
Last week, Koenig seemed to change his tune, posting on social media that he appreciated the way Plocher “addressed the accounting error” and that he was “impressed with how Dean has moved on toward leading the House on important legislation.”
The post drew accusations that Koenig was trying to curry favor with Plocher to avoid having his bills tied up or killed in the House by the speaker’s office.
Koenig said Monday that’s not the case at all.
Plocher wanted him to issue a full retraction of his statement, Koenig said, but his social media post was as far as he was willing to go. He cut no deals with the speaker, he said, but does think at this point it’s best to withhold judgment until the ethics committee releases its report.
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“It’s time to move on,” Koenig said.
Swirling scandals
Plocher’s troubles spilled out into the public in September, when he was accused of engaging in “unethical and perhaps unlawful conduct” as part of a months-long push to get the House to award an $800,000 contract to a private company to manage constituent information.
A month later, The Independent reported Plocher had on numerous occasions over the last five years illegally sought taxpayer reimbursement from the legislature for airfare, hotels and other travel costs already paid for by his campaign.
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As those scandals swirled, Plocher fired his chief of staff. According to the Kansas City Star, that got the attention of the House Ethics Committee, which began looking into whether the staffer was protected as a whistleblower when he was fired.
Plocher even garnered attention from federal law enforcement, with the FBI attending the September legislative hearing where the constituent management contract was discussed and voted down. The FBI, which investigates public corruption, also conducted several interviews about Plocher.
Since the ethics committee began its probe, Plocher has continued facing scrutiny.
In December, The Independent reported Plocher spent $60,000 in taxpayer money to renovate his Capitol office, including converting another lawmaker’s office into a makeshift liquor cabinet Plocher referred to as his “butler’s pantry.”
The Kansas City Star reported earlier this month that Plocher was the only legislator in the past three years to be granted exemptions from House travel policies, allowing him to spend more than allowed to upgrade a flight to Utah and get reimbursed for a flight to a conference in Hawaii.
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And last week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the annual payroll for the speaker’s office ballooned more than $250,000 since Plocher took over.
Missouri senior forward Mark Mitchell was recognized Monday with a second-team selection to the All-Southeastern Conference teams.
Mitchell has led the Tigers all season long and tops the team in scoring (17.9 points per game), rebounding (5.2) and assists (3.6). He would be the just the second player in program to lead all the categories in one season, joining Albert White from the 1998-99 season.
Mitchell is also on pace to become the first player in program history to average at least 17 points, five rebounds and three assists since Anthony Peeler in 1992, the year he took home the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year award.
Mitchell was the only Missouri player to be recognized in SEC postseason awards.
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Five players were named to each of the three All-SEC teams.
Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Tennessee), Thomas Haugh (Florida), Labaron Philon Jr. (Alabama) and Tyler Tanner (Vanderbilt) made the first team.
Acuff was named the conference’s player of the year and freshman of the year.
Joining Mitchell on the second team were Nate Ament (Tennessee), Rueben Chinyelu (Florida), Otega Oweh (Kentucky) and Dailyn Swain (Texas), while Rashaun Agee (Texas A&M), Alex Condon (Florida), Keyshawn Hall (Auburn), Aden Holloway (Alabama) and Josh Hubbard (Mississippi State) were named to the third team.
The All-SEC defensive team consisted of Chinyelu, Somto Cyril (Georgia), Felix Okpara (Tennessee), Billy Richmond III (Arkansas) and Tanner. Chinyelu was selected as the defensive player of the year.
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Appearing on the all-freshman team were Acuff, Amari Allen (Alabama), Ament, Malachi Moreno (Kentucky) and Meleek Thomas (Arkansas).
Swain was selected as the newcomer of the year, while Urban Klavzar of Florida was named the sixth man of the year.
The 2026 Missouri high school basketball state championship brackets continue on Monday, March 9, with eight games in the sectional and quarterfinal round of the higher classifications.
High School On SI has brackets for every classification in the Missouri high school basketball playoffs. The championship games will begin on March 19.
Missouri High School Girls Basketball 2026 Playoff Brackets, Schedule (MSHSAA) – March 9, 2026
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Sectionals
Doniphan vs. Potosi – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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St. James vs. St. Francis Borgia – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Notre Dame de Sion vs. Oak Grove – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Smithville vs. Benton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Cardinal Ritter College Prep vs. Clayton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Orchard Farm vs. Kirksville – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Boonville vs. Strafford – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Reeds Spring vs. Nevada – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Quarterfinals
Festus vs. Lift for Life Academy – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Grandview vs. Kearney – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
MICDS vs. St. Dominic – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Helias vs. Marshfield – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Quarterfinals
Jackson vs. Marquette – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Rock Bridge vs. Staley – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Incarnate Word Academy vs. Troy-Buchanan – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Kickapoo vs. Lee’s Summit West – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request to grade public schools on an “A” through “F” scale is pushing House lawmakers to approve legislation some think isn’t quite ready.
With approval and dissent on both sides of the aisle, the House voted a bill to create a new school accountability system through to the Senate 96-53 Thursday despite concerns the letter grades could be a “scarlet letter” for underperforming schools.
“Will this labeling system actually improve schools or will it mostly brand communities, destabilize staffing and incentivize gaming rather than learning?” asked state Rep. Kem Smith, a Democrat from Florissant, during House debate Tuesday morning, March 3.
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She said the key metrics that determine the grade, performance and growth, are volatile.
“The label itself can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “The bill doubles down on high stakes metrics that are known to be unstable.”
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, told lawmakers that a performance-based school report card with “A” through “F” grades is inevitable. The details, though, are negotiable.
“The governor’s executive order, it is going to happen either way,” he said. “I think we tried to make that process a little better for school districts.”
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Kehoe’s order directs the state’s education department to draw up a plan for the report cards and present it to the State Board of Education. The board could reject the idea, but with a board with primarily new members appointed by Kehoe, lawmakers have accepted the system as fate.
State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly and chair of the House’s education committee, told the committee in January that he prioritized the bill as a way to give lawmakers influence over the final outcome. He is happy with the edits the committee made, which gives the education department more leeway to determine grade thresholds and removes a provision that would raise expectations once 65% of schools achieve “A” or “B” grades.
The House also approved an amendment March 3 that would grade schools’ environment. This would be based on the rates of student suspension, seclusion and restraint incident rates and satisfaction surveys given to students, parents and teachers.
The Senate’s version, which passed out of its education committee last week, does not include those changes.
“I think (the House bill) is the best product we have in the Capitol right now,” Lewis said. “I am not saying it’s complete, but it is the best we have right now.”
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The changes have softened some skeptics of the legislation, like state Rep. Brad Pollitt.
Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican, said he didn’t support the legislation “for a number of years.” But with the edits, he sees potential for the legislation to usher in changes to the way the state accredits public schools.
The current process, he said, “nobody seems to like,” pointing to widespread concerns with the state’s standardized test.
Some of these changes are already happening quietly. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received a grant from the federal government to develop a state assessment based on through-year testing, which would measure student growth throughout the school year, instead of a single summative assessment.
The department is poised to pilot the new test in 14 classrooms this spring, hoping to eventually offer it statewide within a few years. But the estimated startup cost of $2 million is one of many department requests cut from the governor’s proposed budget as the state grapples with declining revenue.
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Creating the “A” through “F” report cards is estimated to cost a similar amount, if not more, according to the state’s fiscal note. The expense is largely frontloaded, going to the programming and technology support required to create the grade cards’ interface.
When The Independent asked Kehoe’s office about the fiscal note, the governor’s communications director Gabby Picard said he would work with “associated agencies” to determine appropriate funding “while remaining mindful of the current budget constraints and maintaining fiscal responsibility.”
The House’s version of the legislation includes an incentive program for high-performing schools, giving bonuses to go toward teacher recruitment and retention, if the legislature appropriates funding for the program.
More: Missouri school board considers using letter grades to score districts
The bill originally proposed incentives of $50-100 per student to subsidize teacher pay. This had large fiscal implications, and Lewis surmised that it would violate a section of the State Constitution prohibiting bonuses for public employees.
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Making the funding optional and directing it to the school’s teacher recruitment and retention fund remedied those concerns. The Senate Education Committee removed the incentive program in its version of the legislation.
The House’s approval Thursday does not stop discussion and possible amendments. Next, the bill will go to the Senate for consideration, and if any changes are made, it will return to the House for more discussion.
This story was first published at missouriindependent.com.
