Senators were split on whether to grant the Missouri Education Department’s request for additional funding for elementary and secondary school transportation. At the current level, department officials said schools have had to repurpose other funds to cover the cost of busing students and, in some cases, switch to a four-day school week.
Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education asked Tuesday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing for an additional $64 million to cover the cost of transporting students to and from school. Gov. Mike Parson recommended only an additional $10 million for the education department’s 2021 transportation budget.
Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, pointed out that for years, legislators have had conversations about underfunding the department’s transportation budget. He asked why, if the department is actually underfunded by about $200 million, the decision was made to ask for only a portion of that amount.
The department’s chief budget officer, Jennifer Jordan, explained that the request for $64 million was part of the department’s plan to request the total amount needed to fund its transportation budget over a three-year period.
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