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Missouri hearing considers joining interstate teacher mobility compact to ease certification transfer
Summary
Representative Ed Lewis presented a bill to join the interstate teacher mobility compact to streamline reciprocal certification and ease recruitment/retention, especially for military spouses; DESE and compact staff supported the logic but noted administrative and software costs.
Representative Ed Lewis introduced legislation to enact the Missouri Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact (HB 22-74/2-274), saying the measure aims to make it easier for out-of-state teachers — including active military members and their spouses — to transfer certification and begin teaching in Missouri.
Lewis described the compact as a reciprocal framework used by other states and said roughly 11% of new teachers last year entered Missouri from out of state. The compact establishes a commission to develop rules and a data system to support license transfer; compact staff and DESE witnesses said the software and ongoing administrative costs would be modest relative to the education workforce benefits. Compact staff estimated recurring software maintenance of about $8,000 to $10,000 per year to run the data system.
Committee members raised potential trade-offs: representatives asked whether the compact could encourage teachers to leave for higher‑paying neighboring states, whether minimum-degree requirements would be affected, and whether the fiscal note accurately captured IT costs. Compact staff and DESE responded that existing reciprocity already operates and that the compact formalizes a national, accountable process while leaving states sovereignty over the certificates they grant.
Support came from community college, higher-education and teacher-organization representatives; technical witnesses noted that 11 states had enacted the compact and additional states were in the process of considering it. The committee did not vote on the measure during the hearing; members asked for more information on participating states, administrative costs, and long-term governance implications before further action.
