The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says Missouri has 144 school districts operating four days a week this academic year, instead of the traditional five-day school week. The shortened learning weeks are used by many rural districts as a teacher recruitment tool.
State Board of Education President Charlie Shields
In the era of workforce shortages, larger districts are catching on – potentially leading to teacher recruitment problems for rural districts. Independence is shifting to a four-day school week. St. Joseph is considering whether to do the same.
During Tuesday’s Missouri Board of Education meeting, President Charlie Shields said he has heard a lot of discussion in the Capitol over the past week about the four-day school week movement.
“I think, rightfully so, there’s a lot of concern. Is that the right thing for students and is there any data that shows that moves us in the direction of greater student achievement,” Shields asked. “I think at this point, there is not that data out there but districts continue to move in that direction.”
The schools with shortened weeks must still fulfill the same number of hours of instruction as schools running five days a week.
Shields, who is a former Missouri Senate President Pro Tem, said the intent of allowing districts to make the switch to four days a week has changed.
“Way back when the school districts were facing a transportation crisis, we were not fully funding the transportation, categorical fuel costs were increasing and the legislature’s response was to move to allow districts to move to a four-day school week, primarily focused on those districts that had really large transportation costs. The idea was that they could do that to solve some of their financial difficulty around transportation. And now, what we’re hearing is that districts are doing that as a teacher and staff recruitment issue. It was done to solve the transportation crisis. It was never envisioned as a teacher recruitment and retention issue,” he said.
In the current state budget year, Missouri fully funded the formula used to bankroll K-12 public education to the tune of $3.56 billion. It fully funded its share of school bus transportation costs by providing a total of $328 million to schools. The state also offered grants this budget cycle to help schools boost teacher pay for new educators and experienced ones.
“If you’re fully funding the formula, if you’re fully funding the transportation categorical, and we get some of the issues in place to solve teacher recruitment and retention, if we move forward on some of those issues, is it appropriate for the legislature and districts to re-address that four-day school week? Does that make sense? Because if you’ve solved the other issues, why are you still doing that? It shouldn’t be an issue for convenience, shouldn’t be an issue for recruitment, if we’ve solved the other issues. I think we need to rethink that. I think some of the discussion will take place this next legislative session.”
Legislative bills have been filed this session to increase Missouri’s minimum teacher pay to $38,000 annually over a three-year period. The minimum salary for a teacher with a master’s degree and at least ten years of teacher experience in public schools would increase from $33,000 to $46,000.
Another bill would provide a student loan forgiveness program for students who become teachers in public schools with high needs.
Missouri has about 550 school districts and charter schools.
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