Three Takes: Missouri Public Opinion on The Teacher Pipeline

The results of the August SLU/YouGov Poll were released today highlighting key assessments of Missouri public opinion on education and political issues. A few of the education foci included teacher salaries, teacher shortages, and views on the teaching profession as a career - all areas connected to the teacher pipeline. In this blog, we discuss three things the recent findings on Missouri public opinion teach us about the teacher pipeline. 

1. Voters support increasing teacher pay across the board. Missouri teacher salaries are some of the lowest in the nation. Missourians have continuously supported increasing starting teacher salaries; still salary increases have only manifested for new teachers through yearly budget allocations, in the absence of a permanent, legislative solution. The SLU/YouGov August 2023 poll asked Missourians about their views on public teacher salaries. Results indicated an overwhelming majority (81%) of likely Missouri voters support increasing teacher salaries. This result was strongly supported across all likely Missouri voter demographics including gender, age, race and income, and all political party affiliations.

2. Voters appear to be aware of a teacher shortage problem. Seventeen percent of voters said teacher shortages were “a very big problem,” while 37% indicated it was “somewhat of a problem.” These results show that a majority (54%) of Missourians believe the K-12 teacher shortage is a problem at some level. Teacher shortages are largely discussed at a broad, state level, and while voters do agree that shortages are an issue, the importance of this issue varies by party affiliation and respondent's race, suggesting that understanding shortages at a local issue is important.

3. Missouri voters mostly, but not resoundingly, would not advise young people to become teachers. A plurality of Missouri likely voters (45%) would not advise a young adult to take up teaching in public schools as a career. Democrats were the most optimistic to recommend teaching as a career (46%), yet nearly as many (40%) indicated they would do the opposite. The lack of strong opinions against teaching as a profession might be an opportunity for optimism in the face of declining numbers of students approaching teaching.

Overall, these results suggest an interconnectedness to the issues—teacher salaries, teacher shortages, and views on teaching as a career—plaguing the teacher pipeline. Voters strongly support increasing teacher salaries but, facing a lack of increased pay, are not as likely to recommend teaching as a profession, despite recognizing a need for more teachers. Increasing teacher salaries with a permanent, legislative solution seems like a logical first step to address Missouri’s teacher pipeline issues.

Check out our blog on Three Things Missouri Public Opinion Teaches Us About the LGBTQ+ Issues in Schools

Read more about the August 2023 SLU/YouGov Poll results.