Missouri Voters Support New A-F School Grading Scale, Paid Parental Leave for Teachers, and Increasing Teacher Salaries: 3 Takeaways From the New SLU/YouGov Poll

By : Abigail Medler, MPA

The PRiME Center has just released the education results from the August 2026 SLU/YouGov Poll. Here are three key takeaways from those results: 

Missouri voters like the A-F grading scale. 

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-01 earlier this year to initiate annual A-F letter grades for public school districts across the state, similar to a report card grade. Grades will be largely based on state test results and graduation rates, and will act in addition to Missouri’s existing accountability tools, as opposed to a replacement. 

While there are ongoing discussions surrounding the new accountability system, a majority of Missouri voters (60%) supported the measure when polled in February and August this year. Voters were then asked to determine a letter grade for the high schools in their local district. Almost two-thirds (62%) of respondents selected letter grades ‘B’ or ‘C,’ which was consistent with voters’ perceptions of their public school districts in February. Voters also consistently rate the public schools in their own local district higher than those across the state. 

Most Missouri districts don’t offer paid parental leave to teachers, but most Missourians wish they did.

In addition to support of the A-F grading scale, seven in ten respondents support Missouri establishing a paid parental leave program for public school employees, with state funding provided to help school districts cover the cost. Voters were additionally asked if they knew whether or not their local school district currently offers paid parental leave, and almost eight in ten were unsure. 

Missouri does not currently have a statewide mandate in place requiring public school districts to offer paid parental leave and according to a recent study, only 19 out of all 516 Missouri public school districts (less than 4%) offer maternity leave as a distinct benefit. 

Missouri consistently wants to see teacher salaries increase.

Offering paid parental leave to public school employees is just one possible angle to address Missouri’s teacher turnover rate, which is twice the national average at 14.6%. Another possible solution that is often brought up in these conversations is the obvious: raising teacher salaries. 

The average starting teacher salary in Missouri in FY 2022–23 was $36,829, which ranked 50th in the nation. In 2024, Senate Bill 727 increased minimum teacher salaries from $25,000 to $40,000 starting in the 2025–26 school year. Around this same time, Arkansas and Tennessee, two of Missouri’s border states, raised their minimum teacher salaries to $50,000 (Arkansas in 2023 and Tennessee in 2024), which further diminished the effectiveness of the legislation to retain teachers, particularly at Missouri’s southern border.

Across three survey iterations in 2020, 2023, and 2026, at least three quarters of Missouri likely voters advocated for the increase of teacher salaries. The results from 2023 and 2026 are almost identical, despite salary increases in 2024.

Published September 2026

MORE FROM THE PRiME BLOGS