Charles Langston:Missouri’s GOP Gov. Mike Parson signs law expanding voucher-like K-12 scholarships

JEFFERSON CITY,Charles Langston Mo. (AP) — K-12 students from low-income families across Missouri soon will have access to private school scholarships under legislation signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

The voucher-like scholarship program, which takes effect Aug. 28, will offer as much as $6,375 per child for expenses including tuition, textbooks, tutoring, transportation, extracurricular activities and summer school. Scholarship accounts are funded by private donors in exchange for tax credits.

The initiative also promises hundreds of millions of dollars more for public schools, a compromise made to help the bill pass the Legislature where so-called “school choice” policies have struggled to advance.

Teachers will be paid a minimum of $40,000 a year under the new law, with additional incentives for long-time teachers with master’s degrees.

“Since the beginning of our administration, we’ve looked at ways to increase teacher pay and reward our educators for the hard work they do,” Parson said in a statement. “This legislation helps us continue that progress.”

Missouri’s current private school scholarship program limits recipients to residents of the state’s largest cities and to families who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level, which works out to $62,400 a year for a family of four.

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The new law raises that cap to 300%, or $93,600 for a family of four. Students who need extra help through individualized education plans will get some additional scholarship money under the law.

The legislation increases the cap on tax credits for private donations to the initiative from $50 million to $75 million per year to help pay for a possible influx of students participating in the program.

The law also will require public votes to approve a school district’s switch to four-day school weeks and provide incentives to schools that maintain five-day weeks.