ST. LOUIS — The $49 billion budget sitting on Gov. Mike Parson's desk right now includes some big wins for education in Missouri.
It's everything from higher salaries to early education expansion.
According to the National Education Association, Missouri is ranked 47th when it comes to minimum teacher salaries. The state is around $4,000 away from being dead last in the country.
Educators hope with the governor's signature, Missouri can finally be competitive.
Matt Zoph, Grandview R-2 School District Superintendent, described it as a "blessing."
"I go back to when I started, and it was barely $20 thousand to start," he said.
Zoph has spent the last 25 years of his life shaping Missouri kids.
"When you get into education, you know, you're not going to be the highest paid in the world, but you know, you would like to be compensated at a rate that you can live," he said.
Many though, like Zoph, believe teachers don't get back as much as they give.
"The whole world is changing and if salaries don't change, education is going to fall behind, so I appreciate what the governor is doing and trying to raise the salaries. If not, we all fall further behind," he said.
That fall could be broken by the billion-dollar budget on Parson's desk that would raise the baseline teacher salary to $38,000 and 100% of that salary completely funded by the state.
All of that money coming from the state is a huge win for Zoph's small district in Jefferson County.
"It allows us to compete with the bigger schools. It's a great thing for us. It will definitely help us," he said.
Paul Ziegler, Education Plus CEO, is hopeful this boost will help the drying up pipeline of teachers.
"If I'm a high school senior and I'm thinking about what I want to pursue in college and I look at being a teacher and I think my starting salary could have been $25,000, it's not real appealing," he said.
This potential rise is a step in the right direction for Ziegler.
"We're certainly not overly aggressive at $38 thousand to recruit and retain. When we look regionally, we need to be competitive with those states around us and we haven't been," he said.
Another portion of the budget includes millions of dollars toward expanding pre-k.
According to Ziegler, studies show how preschool increases school readiness, decreases incarceration rates and is great workforce development.
"We know there's a workforce shortage across the region. Part of that oftentimes is good, reliable childcare and preschool provides some of those options for our parents, so expanding that and making that more accessible will be great for our communities," he said.
While everyone may not agree on everything that came out of the capital this legislative session, educators across the state can agree on one thing.
"They've definitely taken care of education and I'm sure every educator in the state appreciates what they're doing," Zoph said.
"Often over the last couple of years, it seems like there's so much politics around schools and so much negative. This gives us an opportunity to really look at the legislature and our elected officials really recognize the great work we're doing in schools," Ziegler said.
The preschool expansion would also benefit free and reduced lunch students.
Right now, the budget just needs the governor's signature. He is allowed to veto parts of it.