Missouri public education amendment campaign stops signature push, plans 2028 return

An initiative petition campaign seeking to enshrine a “fundamental right” to public education in the Missouri Constitution is abandoning its efforts to get on the November ballot, promising a return in 2028.

The Missouri Right to Education campaign had only collected around 35,000 signatures — one fifth of the minimum required for constitutional amendments — with little more than a month before signatures were due to the secretary of state.

“It took a lot longer to build the coalition that we needed,” Spencer Toder, the organization’s director, told The Independent. “Honestly, in large part because of the lawsuit with the Secretary of State.”

The campaign has been embroiled in a legal battle over ballot language since August after Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wrote a ballot summary describing the proposed amendment as an affront to “existing state scholarship programs that provide direct aid to students with disabilities and low-income families.”



https://missouriindependent.com/2026/03/31/missouri-public-education-amendment-campaign-stops-signature-push-plans-2028-return/