JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri board of education on Tuesday named the department’s next leader and signaled that charter school reform could be one of her first issues to tackle.
Karla Eslinger, a Republican state senator from Wasola, starts as Missouri’s commissioner of education June 1. She will replace Margie Vandeven who served seven years in the role.
In other matters at their monthly meeting, board members complained about charter school oversight before approving Believe STL Academy to open next fall as the 20th public high school in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County said opening new schools is irresponsible when the population of ºüÀêÊÓƵ is shrinking. In 1991, there were 14 ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools and charter high schools in the city for nearly 10,000 students. Next fall, there will be 20 high schools for around 7,000 students.
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“We have a moral and fiduciary responsibility to use scarce taxpayer resources efficiently. We just can’t afford to keep opening schools,â€Â Westbrooks-Hodge told the board members before recording the only dissenting vote on the charter school. “My ‘no’ vote is for optics and it doesn’t mean anything, but on principle I cannot approve schools that are outside of a larger plan that uplifts the entire region.â€
Several other state board members said they want the Legislature to give the board the ability to block new schools from opening. Under current law, a charter school’s sponsor has unlimited approval power which the state board cannot overturn.
“Before we do a huge expansion of charter schools, let’s attack the legislation so we can insure we have good quality schools and the right number of schools,†said board member Kimberly Bailey of Raymore.
But board member Kerry Casey of Chesterfield said SLPS “has had the opportunity to deliver a good quality education and they’re failing. If we think we’re going to fix the system before we provide the opportunity to children, we’re being negligent in our jobs here on the board to provide opportunity to all.â€
Prior to the board’s discussion, Eslinger said she will support school choice as the next commissioner of education and that she cannot be labeled as either an education reformer or public school defender.
“I am a school leader,†Eslinger said. “I support work toward good schools, period.â€
State lawmakers including Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, and Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, have said they want the next commissioner to eliminate “significant bloat and mission creep†in the education department and “promote local control at the parental level.â€
“Missouri public education requires a reset and return to basics,†Koenig and Richey wrote in an October letter to the state board of education.
Eslinger has served on the Legislature’s joint committee on education and voted against the 2021 bill that led to a private school tax-credit voucher program. She also supported innovation waivers that allow some school districts to create new assessment systems and eventually drop state standardized tests. This month, Eslinger pre-filed a bill that would raise the minimum teacher salary to $38,000 statewide.
Eslinger started her career as an elementary school teacher and worked up to the superintendent role in the Ava and West Plains school districts. She also worked for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as an assistant commissioner.Â
The next commissioner earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the College of the Ozarks, a master’s degree from Missouri State University and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Eslinger was first elected to the Legislature as a state representative in 2019 and then as a senator in 2020. She will serve out her term through the 2024 session.Â
The Missouri commissioner of education earns more than $190,000 and oversees an agency with about 1,650 employees who monitor the state’s 518 school districts. Eslinger will become the state’s seventh commissioner since the role was created in 1947.Â