Children explore magnifying glasses at the Downtown Children’s Center in St. Louis. (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent.)
Frustration runs deep for Missouri parents like Libby Eversgerd. Her youngest child has been using a scholarship to attend a small, private school after he “began to resist attending school due to mounting pressure and lack of accommodations for his learning differences.”
It’s not easy to find solutions to complex education problems, but once parents find a solution, losing it is a nightmare.
The Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) lawsuit challenging school choice options could devastate thousands of low-income and special needs families across the state. If the union succeeds, children who rely on scholarships for tuition, learning therapies, or specialized instruction will face the very real possibility of losing access to the educational lifelines that have helped them thrive.
This summer, the MNEA chose courtroom power plays over student needs by targeting a $51 million state investment helping economically disadvantaged and special needs children access high-quality education outside their traditional public schools. By suing to block these funds, the union directly threatens over 7,000 new scholarships slated for this school year, nearly tripling the reach of the program and finally ending years-long waits for children who need help now.
If funding is blocked, families face painful choices: pay tuition out of pocket, drastically cut household spending, or send children (often with complex learning or physical challenges) back into environments that have failed them before. For working parents, school choice is the difference between a child in second grade finally reading confidently or a student losing hard won academic progress. The union’s lawsuit ignores those stakes. Maintaining institutional control, in their view, is more important than the needs of Missouri families.
School choice programs prioritize Missouri’s most vulnerable kids. Families use scholarships not just for private school tuition, but for tutoring, transportation, adaptive technology, and therapies. Blocking those options means denying access to tailored learning environments, sometimes after years of waiting for an opportunity that finally arrived this fall.
More than a legal battle about taxpayer funding, the union’s lawsuit is a direct attack on educational freedom for Missouri’s most vulnerable children and the parents who fight daily for a better life. While union lawyers claim they’re defending constitutional principles, the impact falls squarely on the backs of families: children with reading disabilities or physical needs, single mothers scraping together resources, and parents desperate for one more shot at helping their kids succeed outside the standard system.
Recent national data paints a troubling picture for students, especially those already facing challenges. According to the latest release from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), students are struggling at unprecedented levels. The 2024 “Nation’s Report Card” shows that average scores have declined since 2019 for twelfth graders in mathematics and reading, and for eighth graders in science (these scores were already trending downward even before the COVID shutdowns).
Among high school seniors, the percentage scoring below the basic achievement level in both math and reading has reached the highest point since the assessments began, with nearly half of twelfth graders performing below basic in math and one in three below basic in reading.
These results are sobering, as even federal officials admit, with the largest drops hitting lower performing students hardest and widening the gap between the lowest- and highest-achieving students. Participation in hands-on science learning has also decreased, and absenteeism rates among twelfth graders are up sharply, with nearly a third missing three or more days of school in the previous month.
Against this bleak backdrop, school choice programs are more critical than ever for families failed by the standard system. Fewer than one in four twelfth graders are performing at a proficient level in math, and rates of college readiness in both reading and math have dropped since 2019. For the poorest and most vulnerable (those with disabilities, those qualifying for free lunch), school choice may be the only path to academic growth and confidence.
Though the union claims to act in students’ interests, its actions tell the real story.
The union’s lawsuit would devastate families, removing hope and resources from those who need them most. To block these lifelines now would not just cut off opportunity, but actively worsen the crisis revealed in the Nation’s Report Card. Missouri’s policymakers and courts should heed its dire warnings and do everything in their power to support, not sabotage, direct investments in students most at risk of being left behind. As Missourians, we must unite to secure our kids’ future and shield them from the actions of those who would jeopardize it.