Missouri’s new top educator is focused on teacher recruitment, retention

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri’s top educator said she’s okay with four-day school weeks as long as districts are taking care of students and overall performance is up.

Instead of running for re-election this year, Karla Eslinger was chosen to lead Missouri’s education department. With a long background as a teacher and school administrator, a big issue she plans to tackle is how to address educator recruitment and retention.

“If we’re not able to compete, our kids lose,” Eslinger said. “We’ve wasted a lot of time in our state, I believe, with different opinions of how to educate. Let’s talk about what is good; let’s find a common goal that we can all move towards and let’s pull that rope together.”

A familiar face is back at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). After her time as a teacher and superintendent in southern Missouri, Eslinger became an assistant commissioner at DESE. She then served schools across the country, working for the U.S. Department of Education, but her most recent role was state senator.

“Through the relationships that I’ve had, I’ll be able to bring together and do some more commonalities over what is it that we can do together instead of pointing fingers and talking about this doesn’t work or that doesn’t work,” Eslinger said.

Eslinger replaced Margie Vandeven after she announced back in October that she would be stepping down next summer. Both Vandeven and Eslinger were colleagues in the department nearly a decade ago.

As the head of the department, Eslinger said she’s making it a priority to show how important an investment in education is for the workforce and the future of this state.

“It should not be on the backs of superintendents to figure out where it is that we’re going to get these dollars,” Eslinger said. “It’s all of our responsibility to make sure we fund education at the level where we can have excellence, where we can really and truly recruit and retain.”

This year, lawmakers approved increasing the minimum teacher pay from $25,000 to $40,000 a year. Eslinger said that’s a start, but it’s going to take more than that to keep teachers in the classroom.

“Is it pay? Is it social media? Is it the environment of the classroom? It’s all those things but we have to address them because our kids are too important to us,” Eslinger said. “I do think that if we really look at what we’re doing with our dollar in our state, investing in children, investing in the future is an economic driver for the state.”

As for a shortened school week, Eslinger said she isn’t against the idea but errs on the side of caution on what that fifth day looks like. Roughly 30% of all Missouri school districts were only in session four days a week this past year.

Independence School District, just outside of Kansas City with 14,000 students, is the largest district so far to make the switch.

“So, five days, seven days, whatever it is, that’s a local decision and as long as they are taking care of their children and their performance is up, I don’t have a problem,” Eslinger said.

The General Assembly passed a large education package this year that incentivizes districts to keep a five-day week by giving those schools a boost in state aid, which can be used to increase teacher salaries. Districts within a city or county of more than 30,000 people would be required to ask local voters if the district should move to a four-day week.

This provision is aimed at districts like Independence, with 14,000 students; it’s the largest district so far to make the switch. The Independence School District has until July 2026 to ask local voters if the district should continue with a four-day week.

Once school starts, Eslinger plans to travel the state to meet with districts and community leaders to hear their needs and concerns when it comes to education.

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