A Public Accounting for District 79

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You pay for the schools. You should get to see where the money goes. This page shows you three things. Where your school money goes. What is leaving your public schools. And who you can vote out if you do not like it. Every number here links to its source.

Public money should answer to the public.

Follow the Dollar → See the Numbers

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how far your school's money has fallen behind real costs since 2009

$75M

the most public money that can become private school tuition in a year

the only two places in Missouri with charter schools. St. Louis is one. You live in it

Two Ways In

Pick the door that fits you.

The money question lands differently depending on whether you are raising a child here or paying taxes here. Both doors open onto the same house.

Your child's school runs on a number the state let fall behind for fifteen years.

Missouri sets a target for how much each child's school should get. Then it pays a formula to hit that target. The problem is the target. From 2009 to 2024 it went up just 4 percent. The cost of living went up 33 percent. So the state can call schools fully funded while the money keeps losing ground.

At the same time, the state built ways for that money to leave your public schools. Some follows kids to charter schools. Some turns into private school tuition through vouchers. This page shows you how, with numbers you can check.

What is happening to your school's money

✓A funding target that has not kept up with what it really costs to teach a child
✓Charter schools paid straight by the state, from the same pot as your district
✓A voucher program that turns public money into private school tuition
✓Schools spending your money that you never voted for and cannot vote out

You are paying for schools you cannot fully see and cannot vote on.

Public and magnet schools answer to a board you elect. You can vote those people out. Charter schools answer to a board no one elects. Voucher-funded private schools answer to almost no one. All three run on your tax money.

This is about your vote. When your tax money moves, you should be able to follow it. And you should get to vote on the people who spend it.

What your dollars are funding

✓A school funding formula worth billions, set by the legislature each year
✓Money the state set aside to fix charter school buildings
✓A voucher limit raised to seventy-five million dollars a year
✓Three ways money leaves your public schools, each with less public say

The Quiet Cut

The state never cut the budget. It just stopped letting it keep up.

The most important number in school funding is one almost nobody sees. The state's target sets the floor for what your schools get. Here is what happened to it.

growth in the funding target, 2009 to 2024

33%

inflation over the same fifteen years

Jefferson City News-Tribune, Jan 2026

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A real cut of about one fifth in what the state aims to spend on each child.

Almost every year, the state called it fully funded. But the target kept falling behind what school really costs. You can starve a school slowly, then blame the school for being hungry.

Follow the Dollar

How public money becomes private school tuition, and you never get a vote.

Some people say no tax dollars pay for private schools. That is the trick. Follow one dollar, step by step, and see where it lands.

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Step 1 of 4 · It starts as your taxes

Every public school in your neighborhood runs on tax money. So what happens when the state quietly lets that money take a different road? Here's how

Start with one dollar. A business or a wealthy donor owes it to the state in taxes. Normally the state collects it and spends money like it on your public schools.

That dollar usually lands in the same general fund the state draws on for the school funding formula, the one that sets how much your district gets for each child. Every dollar that never reaches that fund is a dollar the formula cannot send to your school.

Here is the quiet part. The state does not have to cut a single school check to take money away from schools. It can simply choose not to collect a dollar in the first place. That choice never shows up in a budget line called cuts. It shows up as a tax credit, which sounds generous. Same hole in the same pot, friendlier name.

Step 2 of 4 · The dollar takes a detour

The donor never sends the dollar to the state at all. If the money skips the state, can anyone still call it public? Here's how

Instead of paying the state, the donor hands the dollar to a state-approved private fund. That fund pays for private school tuition. The dollar left the public road one step before the tollbooth.

These funds have a name. The state calls them Educational Assistance Organizations. A donor gives to one, the organization opens a private account for a family, and that account pays a private school. The whole route is written into state law on purpose.

Why route it this way instead of writing private schools a check? Because a direct check is public spending, plain and visible, and easy to vote against. A detour through a private fund lets supporters say, with a straight face, that no tax dollars went to private schools. The detour is the product, not an accident.

Step 3 of 4 · The state lets them off the hook

The donor gets the whole dollar back. If the state hands the dollar right back, who actually paid for that private tuition? Here's how

The state gives the donor a tax credit for the full dollar, up to half their tax bill. The state never collects it. You and every other taxpayer cover the gap.

This is a dollar-for-dollar credit, not a small deduction. Give a dollar, owe a dollar less, up to half of what you owe the state. The donor is not handing over their own money. They are redirecting money they owed the public, and picking a private school to receive it instead of the state.

Senate Bill 727 in 2024 grew this program from fifty million dollars a year to seventy-five million, opened it to the whole state, and widened who qualifies. The sponsor was Senator Andrew Koenig. It was carried in the House by Representative Phil Christofanelli. Seventy-five million dollars a year the state agrees in advance not to collect for the public.

Step 4 of 4 · Your school never sees it

The dollar finishes as private school tuition. And the part that should stop you cold, where was your vote in any of this? Here's how

A family receives it as a private school scholarship. No school board you elected ever touched it. You never voted on it. That is a dollar that could have paid for your own child's school, gone, with no one you can hold to account.

Trace the accountability and it vanishes. A public school board is elected and can be voted out. The private fund and the private school are not. No ballot reaches them, no public meeting can overrule them, and you have no way to send the dollar back.

Now scale one dollar up to seventy-five million a year, every year, and growing. That is not a glitch in the system. That is the system doing exactly what it was built to do, moving public money toward private hands while keeping your name off the decision. Once you see the whole route, you cannot unsee it.

Step 1 of 4

You followed the whole dollar. This is how money is manipulated in favor of private agendas at the state level.

When they say no tax dollars pay for private schools, they are right on a technicality. The dollar just took its detour one step before it reached the state.

It is still your public money. The same dollar the state would have collected and spent on your kids now pays private school tuition. You get no say over where it lands, and no one to vote out.

The bill behind it: Missouri Senate, SB 727 (Sen. Koenig)

Where It Goes

Ten kinds of school. Not all answer to your vote.

Every school below runs on public money, at least in part. What changes is who runs it, and whether you can vote them out. Tap any card.

The Numbers

Every figure, with its source.

If a campaign asks you to trust its numbers, it should show its work. Here it is. Tap any gold circle for the plain story and the source.

These numbers reflect Missouri's current budget year, as reported through spring 2026, and were checked on June 8, 2026. Budget numbers can still change as lawmakers act. When a number is a limit or a target, not a final total, it says so. The two bills behind this page are Senate Bill 727 (Sen. Andrew Koenig, carried in the House by Rep. Phil Christofanelli) and House Joint Resolution 173, which is Amendment 5 (Rep. Bishop Davidson and Speaker Jon Patterson, with Reps. Brian Seitz, Tricia Byrnes, and Alex Riley).

Who Answers To You

The real difference is the ballot.

This is bigger than public schools and charter schools. It is the difference between leaders you elect and leaders someone appoints. Between a government you can see into and one you cannot. Between your voice in the vote and choices made for you by people you never chose.

You can vote them out

Public schools · Magnet schools

✓Run by a board your neighborhood elects
✓You can vote those leaders out at the next election
✓You can speak at their public meetings
✓Their books are open to the public by law

You cannot vote them out

Charters · Voucher private schools

×Charters are public schools, but the board is appointed, not elected
×Voucher private schools are private, with far less public reporting
×There is no election where you can replace the people in charge
×Your strongest tool, the ballot, does not reach them

When the people spending your public money are appointed instead of elected, you lose the one tool that keeps them honest. Your vote. That is the door cronyism and nepotism walk through. Jobs and contracts for friends, with no election to clear anyone out. An elected board can be voted off by the neighborhood. An appointed one answers to whoever appointed it.

Here is the question that holds up anywhere. Who voted for the people spending your school money? And why can't you vote them out?

The Plan

Open
Ledger

Pick the door that fits you.

What is happening to your school's money

What your dollars are funding

The state never cut the budget. It just stopped letting it keep up.

How public money becomes private school tuition, and you never get a vote.

Ten kinds of school. Not all answer to your vote.

Every figure, with its source.

The real difference is the ballot.

You can vote them out

You cannot vote them out

Three fi

Hopkins HQ

OpenLedger

Pick the door that fits you.

What is happening to your school's money

What your dollars are funding

The state never cut the budget. It just stopped letting it keep up.

How public money becomes private school tuition, and you never get a vote.

Ten kinds of school. Not all answer to your vote.

Every figure, with its source.

The real difference is the ballot.

You can vote them out

You cannot vote them out

Three fi

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