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​​Livingston County R-III was among a litany of school districts last year with a performance report that could have put its accreditation in jeopardy. But this year, it has the highest score in Missouri, swelling more than 35 points to receive 96.1% of the points possible — a synthesis of student test scores, attendance, school-district […]

The post Missouri school administrators question district scores in second year of new formula appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Community colleges and four-year universities can work together to improve the transfer student experience, a data report from the U.S. Department of Education suggests. The U.S. Department of Education released data about the institutions where transfer students have the highest graduation rates in each state, with New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia doing […]

The post Researchers look at how to help more community college students gain four-year degrees appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Census Bureau has proposed a major change to disability questions on its annual American Community Survey that advocates say will reduce the number of people who are counted as disabled by 40%. The change in available data could affect federal funding allocations and the decisions government agencies make about accessible housing, public transit, and […]

The post Census Bureau’s proposed changes threaten to undercount people with disabilities, advocates say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s crackdown on a cannabis company accused of illegally importing THC concentrate could lead to a showdown over the state’s authority to regulate the industry. Delta Extraction had its license to manufacture cannabis products revoked in November, months after a massive recall pulled more than 60,000 products off the shelves — which the state says […]

The post Company behind Missouri marijuana recall poses legal challenge to state’s regulations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As Missouri lawmakers face state budget proposals in the 2024 legislative session, they might want to consider what their staff had reported about the financial impact of tax cuts passed in prior years. In 2023, the legislature approved tax reductions for government employee pensions and Social Security benefits. A year earlier, the legislature passed a […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Legislative estimates of tax cut losses appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After skyrocketing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and then tempering almost as dramatically a year later, health care spending in the U.S rose just over 4% in 2022, hitting $4.5 trillion, the federal government announced Wednesday. The annual growth in the nation’s health care spending appears to be returning to pre-pandemic trends, […]

The post Spending on health care in US rises to $4.5 trillion in 2022; a return to pre-pandemic growth rates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s highest court this week heard arguments over the constitutionality of a two-year-old state law terminating parental rights following a conviction for certain crimes against children.  The case, heard Wednesday by the state Supreme Court, involves a Jefferson County father whose parental rights were terminated after he pled guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court weighs whether crimes against children should sever parental rights appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. House headed home Thursday for a three-week winter break without completing work on several must-pass bills, but senators are now scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Monday as leaders in the upper chamber and the White House look for an agreement on immigration policy. The last-minute scheduling change […]

The post US Senate postpones winter break as lawmakers try to craft an immigration deal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has authority to add workers, increase pay and ignore appropriation bill limits if no changes are made to a court ruling issued in October, Department of Transportation director Patrick McKenna told lawmakers on Wednesday. Facing  pointed questioning during a hearing of a House appropriations subcommittee, McKenna said the commission […]

The post State asks judge to reverse decision on Missouri highways commission pay raise plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The massive annual defense policy package cleared Congress ahead of the holiday recess, despite protests about attaching a foreign surveillance extension and criticism that the bill did not block a Pentagon abortion policy. U.S. House lawmakers approved the package on Thursday 310-118, under a suspension of the chamber’s rules, meaning a two-thirds majority was […]

The post Shipbuilding, bombers, military pay raise: Congress sends massive defense bill to Biden appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For about as long as passengers have stepped onto buses, public transportation in most of Missouri has meant fixed routes and schedules. The idea of on-demand, point-to-point service as a public amenity was unheard of. Today, those rides are being offered in Kansas City and St. Louis. Smaller Missouri cities are mulling whether microtransit — […]

The post Uber-style rides seen as a tool for public transit in rural and urban Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Negotiations over immigration policy made small progress Wednesday, but not enough to strike a deal and ease the passage of billions in global security aid before Congress leaves for a three-week recess. Meanwhile, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said they are frustrated that some proposals under discussion would make major changes in […]

The post Immigration talks in Congress lag as Latino lawmakers urge rejection of GOP proposals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

It’s been four months since the police raid on the Marion County Record, but new revelations are deepening our understanding of what may come to be regarded as a signal moment in the history of American journalism. The more we know about the newspaper raid, the more alarmed we should be, because the stench just […]

The post Kansas newspaper raid exposed a shameful abuse of power. It’s not just the press in danger appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This year will end on a major cliffhanger for abortion access. Last November, anti-abortion activists via a powerful conservative Christian law firm asked a federal court to effectively ban or widely restrict the abortion drug mifepristone. Finally on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take the case, making Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug […]

The post Fear and confusion over abortion access persists as SCOTUS takes its first post-Dobbs case appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri University of Science and Technology will grant K-12 scholarships through the state’s tax-credit-based program MOScholars beginning in the 2024-2025 school year. A nonprofit within Missouri S&T will become the seventh educational assistance organization, or EAO, in the MOScholars program. EAOs receive donations through a process overseen by the state treasurer and remit the money […]

The post Missouri S&T to distribute K-12 scholarships for private, homeschool students appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Three years after taking the dual role of MU chancellor and UM System president, Mun Choi’s pay package has quietly approached $1 million through decisions made in a series of closed-door curators meetings. An attorney who works with Missouri open meetings law argued decisions on Choi’s salary should be made in public. In 2020, the […]

The post University of Missouri curators keep Mun Choi’s salary increases under the radar appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will hear oral arguments and decide whether broad access to the abortion pill can remain legal across the United States. The justices’ decision to hear the case this term will put abortion access and the politics that comes with it back in front of the nation’s highest court […]

The post US Supreme Court to decide fate of medication abortion access nationwide appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took an important step Tuesday toward passing the nation’s annual defense policy bill, but the legislation did not include provisions aimed at compensating victims of radioactive contamination in St. Louis and around the country. The reliably bipartisan legislation is expected to hit the same hard-right opposition in the U.S. House […]

The post Federal defense bill advances without compensation for St. Louis victims of nuclear waste appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The board overseeing Missouri’s largest state employee pension fund voted Tuesday to  sell most of its investments in Chinese-owned companies, reversing a decision it made last month. The divestment by the Missouri State Employees Retirement Fund will take place over the next 12 months, with an allowance to stretch that to 36 months to avoid […]

The post State board votes to divest Missouri pension fund from China appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struggled Tuesday to convince members of Congress to approve billions in additional aid to his country at a crucial moment in the nearly two-year war with Russia. But the outlook was grim as lawmakers remained deadlocked on another piece of a supplemental spending bill under debate in the Senate […]

The post Zelenskyy pitches Congress on Ukraine military aid, but it’s tied to stalled border talks appeared first on Missouri Independent.