Missouri Right to Public Education Amendment (2026)
| Missouri Right to Public Education Amendment | |
|---|---|
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| Election date |
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| Topic Public education funding |
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| Status Cleared for signature gathering |
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| Type Initiated constitutional amendment |
Origin |
The Missouri Right to Public Education Amendment may appear on the ballot in Missouri as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2026.
This amendment would provide that education is a fundamental right, and that it is the duty of the state to establish and maintain adequate, thorough, and uniform high quality free public schools.[1]
Text of measure
Full text
The filed version of the initiative (#070) is available here.
Path to the ballot
Process in Missouri
In Missouri, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election in six of the eight state congressional districts. Signatures must be filed with the secretary of state six months prior to the election.
The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2026 ballot:
- Signatures: The smallest possible requirement is 170,215 valid signatures. The actual requirement depends on the congressional districts in which signatures are collected.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures is May 3, 2026.
Once the signatures have been filed with the secretary of state, the secretary copies the petition sheets and transmits them to county election authorities for verification. The secretary of state may choose whether the signatures are to be verified by a 5 percent random sample or full verification. If the random sampling projects between 90 percent and 110 percent of required signatures, a full check of all signatures is required. If more than 110 percent, the initiative is certified, and, if less than 90 percent, the initiative fails.
Stages of this ballot initiative
- The ballot initiative, submitted to the secretary of state by Spencer Toder, was cleared for signature gathering on August 11, 2025.
- On December 24, 2025, it was reported that Missouri Right to Education has collected more than 25,000 signatures in support of the initiative.[2]
Toder v. Hoskins
| Court Information | |
| Issue | Was the ballot language for the measure insufficient or unfair? |
|---|---|
| Court | Cole County Circuit Court |
| Ruling | |
| Ruling | Ballot language was ruled as unfair and insufficient |
| Order(s) |
Order: Cole County Circuit Court (12/4/2025) Order: Cole County Circuit Court (8/18/2025) |
| Participants | |
| Plaintiff(s) | Missouri Right to Education Initiative |
| Defendant(s) | Denny Hoskins |
On August 18, 2025, Spencer Toder, director of Missouri Right to Education, the proponents of the initiative, filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. The lawsuit said that the ballot summary written by Secretary Hoskins was "deceptive and prejudicial." On December 4, 2025, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled that the ballot summary was unfair, and required Secretary Hoskins to rewrite the summary by December 8, 2025.[3]
On December 23, the court approved the new ballot language, saying that it met state requirements.[2]
See also
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Missouri Secretary of State, "Initiative Petition Text," accessed August 18, 2025
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 KOMU, "Judge stamps approval on revised ballot language for Missouri public education measure," December 23, 2025
- ↑ Missouri Independent, "Judge orders rewrite of ballot summary for Missouri public education initiative petition," December 4, 2025
