Missouri

Thousands of Missouri students have left public education. Here's why

Published

2 years ago

January 17, 2024

Thousands of Missouri students have left public education. Here's why

Thousands of students in Missouri have left public school in the last four years, in line with a national trend of more families disengaging from public education.

An analysis by the Associated Press, Big Local News and Stanford University economist Thomas Dee found enrollment in Missouri’s public schools dropped by 2% from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2022-2023 school year — making up nearly 18,000 students.

Nationally, the AP’s study found private schooling grew nearly 8% and homeschooling grew by nearly 27% during the same time period among more than 30 states with credible private, public or homeschool enrollment data.

Collin Hitt, executive director of the PRiME Center, which studies education in Missouri, said it’s been an open question whether the state’s homeschooling jump was temporary.

“Given the fact that we’re seeing public K-12 enrollments stay relatively flat, it probably suggests this is something that’s going to continue for some time, which is a major development,” Hitt said.

Thousands of students across the country still haven’t returned to the classroom since the pandemic shut schools down for months. An estimated 230,000 students were considered “missing” in fall 2021, meaning demographic changes or increases in private school or homeschooling couldn’t account for their disappearance from public education.

Students have since slowly made their way back to varying forms of education or aged out of school, leaving only 50,000 kids unaccounted for.

Missouri doesn’t track private school data and doesn’t legally require parents to tell the state when they homeschool their child. However, most parents will notify their public school district if they switch to homeschooling.

Based on that limited data, Missouri has seen a 34% increase in homeschooling since 2019 — but that doesn’t include children who never attended public schools to begin with.

Education leaders anticipated a drop in enrollment across the country because of declining birth rates. U.S. birth rates have been on the downswing for more than a decade, hitting a record low in 2020.

The AP found there are 3,000 fewer school-aged children in Missouri compared to when the pandemic began.

Hitt said even if birth rates remain flat going forward, the declines between 2010 and 2020 have yet to age their way through the system, which will result in lower school enrollment.

However, he said birthrates can’t explain the steep drop in enrollment after the pandemic hit.

“What the pandemic did is it exposed more parents to homeschooling and virtual schooling,” Hitt said. “It also changed the work dynamic for tons of families, where tons of families are now working from home all or most of the time.”

That, combined with more private school vouchers and savings programs for families to spend on public school alternatives, Hitt said, has created the perfect conditions for a homeschooling boom.

Dannielle Joy Davis, known by many as Dr. Joy, runs a program for homeschooling families called “The Circle of Excellence” and is a professor of higher education at St. Louis University.

She began homeschooling her son before the pandemic, but said it was some families’ first exposure to homeschooling.

“Once students experienced that and enjoyed it, and once parents saw the joy of learning in their own households, as you imagine, some parents said, “‘This is nice — we should keep doing this,’” Davis said.

She said parents who choose to homeschool are drawn to the freedom to choose how to teach their children. For example, her son took a scuba class with a certified diver because he loves marine biology.

Davis said more families are turning to homeschooling for another reason.

Society and schools have seen dramatic changes in the last several years. Repeated mass shootings have heightened concerns around school safety. A white Minneapolis police officer’s 2020 murder of George Floyd kicked off international calls for justice and police reform. Republican state legislators in Missouri have targeted school curricula around history and race in recent years.

Davis said some parents see homeschooling as an opportunity to protect their children from bullying, sexism or racism at school — and even the stress of having to go through a metal detector to enter the building.

“A large part of the shift is out of love,” Davis said. “The parents’ love of the children to say, ‘Look, the system is not the ideal in terms of cultivating a safe, peaceful, loving environment for my kid and look, I get to do something about it.’”

Thinking “smaller and smarter”

Hitt said declining public school enrollment has some potential benefits, like smaller class sizes. He said that could also allow the state to give schools more money per pupil in the short term, since the state legislature is used to appropriating a certain amount for K-12 education.

“It’s possible that these enrollment declines will take some pressure off of the system and let them get down to a size that might actually work better for kids,” Hitt said.

But districts that see a significant decline in enrollment could have a substantial drop in state and federal resources, Hitt said, since those are typically determined on a per-pupil basis.

The steep enrollment drop following the pandemic has mostly leveled, but Hitt said schools will still have to cope with the fallout of declining birth rates for years to come.

“Going forward, I think 20 years from now, when we look back at who the most effective educational leaders were of this generation,” Hitt said. “It’s going to be the people who figured this out; how do we get smaller, and smarter and better all at once?”

Source link

Click to comment

Missouri

Missouri Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 winning numbers for Jan. 10, 2026

Published

1 hour ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

The Missouri Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Jan. 10, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

05-19-21-28-64, Powerball: 14, Power Play: 3

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

Midday: 5-6-1

Midday Wild: 9

Evening: 1-7-3

Evening Wild: 8

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

Midday: 9-3-8-0

Midday Wild: 9

Evening: 0-9-0-1

Evening Wild: 6

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash4Life numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

01-09-28-35-54, Cash Ball: 03

Check Cash4Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash Pop numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

Early Bird: 04

Morning: 11

Matinee: 06

Prime Time: 03

Night Owl: 07

Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Show Me Cash numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

08-18-25-28-30

Check Show Me Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from Jan. 10 drawing

10-19-39-47-67, Powerball: 18

Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

All Missouri Lottery retailers can redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes over $600, winners have the option to submit their claim by mail or in person at one of Missouri Lottery’s regional offices, by appointment only.

To claim by mail, complete a Missouri Lottery winner claim form, sign your winning ticket, and include a copy of your government-issued photo ID along with a completed IRS Form W-9. Ensure your name, address, telephone number and signature are on the back of your ticket. Claims should be mailed to:

Ticket Redemption

Missouri Lottery

P.O. Box 7777

Jefferson City, MO 65102-7777

For in-person claims, visit the Missouri Lottery Headquarters in Jefferson City or one of the regional offices in Kansas City, Springfield or St. Louis. Be sure to call ahead to verify hours and check if an appointment is required.

For additional instructions or to download the claim form, visit the Missouri Lottery prize claim page.

When are the Missouri Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 10 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Pick 3: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
Pick 4: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
Cash4Life: 8 p.m. daily.
Cash Pop: 8 a.m. (Early Bird), 11 a.m. (Late Morning), 3 p.m. (Matinee), 7 p.m. (Prime Time) and 11 p.m. (Night Owl) daily.
Show Me Cash: 8:59 p.m. daily.
Lotto: 8:59 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.
Powerball Double Play: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Missouri editor. You can send feedback using this form.

Source link

Missouri

1 dead after rollover crash Friday evening in Kansas City, Missouri

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

1 dead after rollover crash Friday evening in Kansas City, Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One person died in a rollover crash Friday evening in Kansas City, Missouri, on Missouri 152 Highway near North Indiana Avenue.

The victim, whose identity has not been released, was alone in the vehicle, police said.

The crash happened at 5:35 p.m.

No word on what led to the crash.

—

Source link

Missouri

Missouri Secretary of State admits to misleading ballot language for gerrymander referendum

Published

2 days ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Missouri Secretary of State admits to misleading ballot language for gerrymander referendum

Protestors gather in the rotunda to protest a redistricting plan that would split Kansas City into three districts on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the Missouri State Capitol, in Jefferson City, Mo. (Yong Li Xuan/Missourian via AP)

An attorney representing Missouri’s top election official admitted in court Friday that her client had authored ballot language that could “prejudice” voters about a referendum to block the GOP’s new gerrymandered congressional map.

The state constitution gives Missourians the right to veto new state laws by holding a statewide referendum vote. Since Missouri Republicans passed mid-decade redistricting in September, voters have been fighting to put it to a referendum. But the Republican Party – including Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins – are throwing every possible hurdle in its path.

That apparently includes ballot language.

In November, People Not Politicians, the group leading the referendum effort, filed a lawsuit challenging what it termed the “dishonest” text Hoskins had approved.

The court could take over the task of writing the ballot language if Hoskins fails to provide an acceptable version after three tries. A bench trial is scheduled for Feb. 9.

Missouri law requires the secretary of state’s ballot language to be a “true and impartial statement” that isn’t “intentionally argumentative” or “likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure.”

At a hearing Friday, Hoskins’ attorney admitted the ballot summary was likely to create prejudice against the referendum, according to People Not Politicians. She also said the language would be revised in negotiations with the referendum organizers, the Missouri Independent reported.

Now, the state will get “another bite at the apple” to write new language, Chuck Hatfield, an attorney representing People Not Politicians, told Democracy Docket.

“Rather than losing in court, today the Secretary of State simply admitted that he broke the law and sought to deceive Missouri voters,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, said in a statement. “While warranted, this admittance does little to alleviate our concerns that a subsequent summary prepared by him will be any more accurate. Missourians deserve the truth about their rights and the referendum.”

According to court filings, the official certified ballot language reads: “Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s existing gerrymandered congressional plan that protects incumbent politicians, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact, are more compact, and better reflects statewide voting patterns?”

In addition to the misleading ballot language, Republicans have devised relentless obstacles for referendum supporters, including trying to decline certifying the petition on holding a referendum for being filed too soon, reject signatures for being collected too soon, block the petition from moving forward and intimidate referendum supporters.

Hoskins is also insisting on enacting the new map before voters can hold the referendum, breaking with Missouri precedent.

Source link