Missouri Voters on School Quality: Ideological and Geographic Breakdown
T.J. Lindstrom
This brief analyzes Missouri voters’ perceptions of public school quality using nine waves of the SLU/YouGov poll from 2020–2025 (N=7,281). Consistent with national trends, respondents rated their community schools more favorably than Missouri’s schools overall, though most gave identical ratings at both levels. Ideological differences emerge primarily in statewide evaluations, with conservatives more positive and liberals more critical, while local ratings remain comparatively stable. Geographic variation is modest, though St. Louis stands out for its unusually negative assessments of local schools, relative to their views of schools statewide.
Key Points:
Over half of voters gave identical ratings to their local schools and Missouri schools overall, but when differences appeared, local schools were rated higher about three times as often as lower.
Roughly one-quarter of voters say their local schools are better than the state’s, about half see no difference, and only a small share rate them as worse. The City of St. Louis stands out as a sharp exception, with residents rating their local schools significantly lower than voters elsewhere despite offering similar statewide assessments.
Conservatives rate schools more positively overall, while liberals report a larger gap between local and state ratings due to more negative statewide evaluations.
Geographic variation in school evaluation is limited. Considered at a regional level, voters almost uniformly rate their local schools slightly better than they rate the Missouri school system as a whole, on average.
Missouri’s two largest cities diverge from the statewide trend. Kansas City rates its local schools similarly to its ratings of state schools as a whole. St. Louis City voters rate their local schools significantly below how they rate the state’s, with half of voters in the city rating local school quality as poor.
Please Cite As: Lindstrom, T. (2025). Missouri Voters on School Quality: Ideological and Geographic Breakdown. Policy Research in Missouri Education, 7(25). Saint Louis University. www.primecenter.org/policy-brief-database/school-quality