Gov. Eric Greitens' assumptions of his K-12 public education budget priorities for the 2019 fiscal year are that teachers in Missouri are underpaid and administrative costs are too high.
Missouri teachers earn less than their counterparts in most other areas of the United States, according to the National Education Association.
A December report from the office of Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway also found that over the 12 years between the 2003-04 and 2015-16 school years, average superintendent salaries across the state increased 31 percent and average administrator salaries - including superintendents - increased 27 percent, compared to a 22 percent increase for teacher salaries.
School district instruction expenditures per student increased 9 percent between 2011-12 and 2015-16, while administration expenditures per student increased 14 percent.
Charter schools in the state had an even wider disparity. School instruction expenditures per student decreased 1 percent, while administration expenditures per student increased 18 percent.
"Many schools that spent a higher percentage of current expenditures on administration and a lower percentage on instruction performed worse on the DESE APR," the auditor's report concluded on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Annual Performance Report.
The auditor's office recommended DESE "conduct a study on how spending decisions impact school performance and make the information available to schools to use in budgeting decisions."
DESE cautioned in its response to the auditor's report, however, "a study attributing causation, or even correlation between school spending and student achievement would not be appropriate, nor result in valid conclusions. Numerous factors impact both per pupil spending and student achievement where one has nothing to do with the other.
"For example, per pupil spending is influenced by economies of scale, variations in local wealth and numbers of students with special needs who have higher costs to educate," DESE reported.
The News Tribune looked at the percent change in instruction and administration expenditures of local districts and districts of similar size to Jefferson City Public Schools over time and compared that to the same school districts' percent change in APR scores - to test if there is any correlation between those things.
DESE said 2011-12 APR scores are not comparable to more recent years because the state used a different scoring system at the time, so the News Tribune adjusted its calculations accordingly to start with 2012-13, but kept the 2015-16 endpoint of the state auditor's report.
The analysis of 12 diverse school districts over four years seems to support DESE's statement there is no consistent relationship between any kind of disparity in how much more or less a district spends on what and how well its students perform on state assessments.
The Ferguson-Florissant, Russellville and Joplin school districts all had decreases in the amount of money spent on instruction - while adminstration expenses rose in Ferguson and Joplin - but their students still improved APR scores. Joplin had the most significant APR score improvement of the three districts - where administration costs also rose the most of the three.
Joplin's percent increase in its APR scores was a bigger improvement than Columbia's - where administration expenses decreased, while instruction expenses increased the most out of any district in the group of 12.
The California school district had the highest increase in administration costs - at more than 42 percent, compared to a just above 14 percent increase in instruction expenses - but its students improved their APR scores.
The district of the 12 with the biggest percent decrease in APR scores - St. Joseph - didn't have the biggest percent increase in administration expenses, the smallest increase in instruction expenses or the biggest disparity between the two.
Have a question about this article? Have something to add? Email reporter Phillip Sitter at [email protected].