MOScout Daily Update: New CD-2 Rating - Workforce Report - Children’s Leader Vows To Stay - $$$ for Soybeaners? and more…
Quick Friday update…
Sabato Rating Changes
The highly respected Larry Sabato changed his ratings on Missouri congressional districts in advance of the new map being implemented.
Workforce of the Future Report
Governor Mike Kehoe released the “Workforce of the Future Challenge” Report. It’s a roadmap for improving Missouri’s Career and Technical Education (CTE). You can read it here.
The report is skeletal. It sketches possible actions to increase CTE’s impact and the resources needed to make it a reality. But the underlying angst that the report is meaning to address is very deep…
My definition of the American Dream is that you give your kids a little better life than you had – things are little easier for them, they get a little farther than you did. But there’s tremendous economic anxiety right now. And with that, the sense that it’s harder for the next generation than it was for the previous one.
The tariff wars are a backlash against global trade which has brought cheap goods (and rising standard of living) to Americans while sacrificing traditional industries which had offered stable careers. Meanwhile the escape hatch from competing globally against cheaper labor was supposed to be education. Yet, there’s a sense that college doesn’t pay for many kids these days, primarily because it involves taking on too much debt.
That’s why the recommendation to incentivize more apprenticeship programs seems right on the mark. There are very successful training and apprenticeship programs in place already, like the Pipefitters Training Center in Earth City. Building these out further would be a huge workforce asset.
Still, the report feels hollow. I think because I am skeptical of the idea, which is strung throughout the report, that school counselors or governmental entities will somehow be able to assess or predict what jobs will be in demand in order to build the correct labor pipeline is laughable.
The pace of technological advances is clearly outstripping the ability to forecast. And that’s the biggest challenge to the future workforce.
No More Turnover Atop Children’s Division?
Writing in an op/ed in the Post-Dispatch, Sara Smith, director of the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, promises that she’s in it for the long haul…
· Over the past five years, Children’s Division has experienced frequent leadership changes, each well intended and each bringing new ideas and initiatives to protect our most vulnerable…
· Frontline staff and partners are left asking: Will this change last? Will this leader stay? Why should I invest again when I’ve seen this story before?..
· Changing culture in an agency this size won’t happen overnight, or even a year. Each day we stay the course — rebuilding trust, strengthening practice, working together — we move closer to the child-centered, safety-focused system Missouri needs…
· For many of my peers nationwide, six months marks half a tenure; I did not come here to be another short chapter. I came to help write a different story — one where Missouri’s child welfare system stabilizes, strengthens, and succeeds for the sake of children.
Sarnecki Hires Kelly
Sunflower State Journal reports that “Johnson County (Kansas) businessman Philip Sarnecki has hired a former aide to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri as his campaign manager in the 2026 governor's race. Sarnecki's new campaign manager is Hunter Kelly, who worked as deputy state director and district director for Hawley.”
Trump Mulls Aid for Soybeaners
Wall Street Journal reports that “President Trump is considering providing $10 billion or more in aid to U.S. farmers as the agriculture sector warns of economic fallout from his far-reaching tariffs… The aid likely would go toward helping soybean producers, as well as other parts of the farm economy.”
· American farmers are harvesting one of the largest crops in history, fueling a glut that is driving down prices for corn and soybeans. Rising costs for equipment, fertilizer and other materials are also crimping profits. U.S. soybean farmers are estimated to lose roughly $100 an acre this year, according to federal data.
· From January through August of this year, U.S. soybean exports to China totaled just over 200 million bushels, down from almost one billion bushels during the same period in 2024, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Soybeans are Missouri’s top agricultural export.
STL Panel
The Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission announced the panel of three nominees to fill the associate circuit judge vacancy in St. Louis created by the retirement of the Honorable Barbara T. Peebles. They are: Tanja Engelhardt, Brooke Hurst, and Michael Walton.
New Committees
The folks aiming to recall St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer have formed a political action committee. See the filing here.
Lobbyist Registrations
Mavis Dey added Missouri Families for Home Education.
John Bardgett deleted Everytown For Gun Safety Action Fund.
John Cozad deleted HappyBottoms.
Jasmine Wells terminated her registration.
$5K+ Contributions
Real Action PAC (pro-Christ) - $6,500 from Spirit of Missouri.
St Louis County Democratic Central Committee - $5,309 from 360 Westport.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to John Rizzo, Josh Foster, Zora Mulligan and Maria Chappelle-Nadal.