Capitol Report 6/12/2026

Missouri News Network: Statehouse News for MPA Members

This report is written by Missouri School of Journalism students for publication by MPA member newspapers in print and online.

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Missouri News Network this week has coverage of libraries stepping up to help state residents coping with rising costs, a report on rising prices for homes, staffing challenges for childcare centers and the starring role of Missouri U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt in the annual congressional baseball game fundraiser.

If you have thoughts or questions, contact Fred Anklam at anklamf@missouri.edu.

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Missouri senator shines as Republicans defeat Democrats 11-2 in annual baseball game

By Jacob Miklas and Kaleb Anderson, Missouri News Network

WASHINGTON  —  Under the bright lights of Nationals Park, the red-capped left fielder stretched his entire 6-foot-6-inch length to catch the ball, bouncing up with a bloody face.

It was just another congressional baseball classic for U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., whose MVP-winning performance led the Republicans’ 11-2 victory.

The game, played on Wednesday night before a crowd of thousands at the stadium that’s home to the Washington Nationals, extended the GOP’s winning streak to six. A tradition dating to 1909, the game raises money for a group of charities.

Missouri was represented this year by two Republican lawmakers: Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, whose southwest Missouri district includes Joplin, Springfield and Branson.

Schmitt was playing in his fourth congressional game and came to the park in a St. Louis Cardinals cap. He played varsity football and baseball at Truman State University.

“When we get out there, we’re raising money, but we want to win,” Schmitt said. “So it allows you to get your competitive juices flowing again, which is fun.”

Schmitt, 50, was the first Republican to reach base with a walk, followed by a stolen base and a run. C-SPAN’s video of his diving catch made ESPN’s SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays the following day. Despite his injury, the play did not take the senator out of the game. He recorded another walk and two singles before game’s end.

The game offers a rare glimpse of bipartisan sportsmanship in Washington’s increasingly tense political arena. One of the only other senators on either team was the Democrats’ relief pitcher, Alex Padilla. The liberal Californian is Schmitt’s ideological opposite on most issues, but the Missouri senator says their shared love of baseball has allowed them to cultivate a great working relationship and friendly rivalry.

Schmitt said Padilla beaned him two years ago. “I said, ‘What are you doing, brother?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, if I was trying to hit you, I would hit you on the first pitch.’ And I said, ‘Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt anyway.’ So there’s a lot of that kind of back and forth,” Schmitt said.

According to Schmitt’s X account, the event raised $3 million for charity and sold 35,000 tickets.

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Childcare centers across the state grapple with staff retention issues

By Emma Jones, Missouri News Network

As more discussions about supplying adequate, affordable childcare are had across the state, childcare centers continue to struggle with staff retention.

Beth Ann Lang, deputy chief executive officer of Child Care Aware of Missouri, has been working to address Missouri’s childcare crisis for more than 20 years.

Lang said there are many deep-rooted issues within the early childcare industry, but she feels that low wages and a lack of education requirements for workers in the field heavily impact turnover.

A January 2025 report from Child Care Aware found a 26% to 40% staff turnover rate due to stagnant wages between 2020 and 2024. Lang said salaries vary by area, but she said many workers barely receive compensation higher than minimum wage and rarely receive benefits.

“If you’re not being paid and you don’t have an education base to be able to do your very best, then people don’t want to stay in our field,” Lang said.

She said another aspect of the problem is that the education field is undervalued in the United States, which in turn has led to major systemic issues.

“If you’ve ever looked at some other countries and how they approach education and early childhood education, it’s much more part of the larger system,” Lang said. “It’s viewed as a very important job and one that actually makes money.”

Amber Hansen, executive director of Seeds of Faith Preschool in Clinton, said she has been advocating for early childhood education to be more valued as a career in recent years.

“Childcare is not easy. There’s lots of factors that happen in these early years of brain development,” Hansen said. “We’re dealing with kids with trauma, foster kids. There’s lots of things that go into our job; it’s not just having them sit at a desk and complete a worksheet.”

Hansen said specific issues with staff retention vary from year to year, but it remains a consistent problem.

“Retention is a challenge for any childcare provider because of the pay factor,” Hansen said.

Hansen’s teachers are contracted to remain on staff until the end of a nine-month school year, so her day-to-day operations are mostly unaffected by staffing changes. However, she said problems could easily arise for centers under different circumstances.

“I could see that being a problem for 12-month programs because if you have a two-week notice of somebody’s quitting, that doesn’t leave you very long to find somebody, and then you’ve got to run a background screening on them,” Hansen said.

Lang said that for the state to begin to chip away at the problems within childcare, it must stop treating only the symptoms of the problem without also addressing the main issue at hand.

“If somebody’s bleeding, you put a Bandaid on them,” Lang said. “But then you’re going to ask, ‘Why are you bleeding? What caused that?’”

She said she wishes legislators would try to look at the issue through the eyes of someone who works in childcare.

“I wish that every legislator would spend one day in a childcare program, whether it’s family-based or center-based to be just there seeing what it’s like, what the issues are, what the challenges are,” Lang said. “Sitting in a room of 1-year-olds or in a family childcare program where you have two babies, a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old all running around at the same time needing you.”

Lang said even though things seem hard now, she still holds out hope for conditions to change in the future.

“Over the next five years, if we are actually as communities and as legislators and as education entities sitting together and discussing what needs to change, and making plans then enacting them, we’ll be in a good place,” Lang said.

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Missouri libraries see increased demand as inflation strains household budgets

By Najifa Farhat, Missouri News Network 

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported in April that the current inflation rate is at a three-year high of 3.8%, up from March’s rate of 3.5%, and prompting many Americans to look for ways to reduce spending.

In dire times, people have historically sought help from public resources, and as inflation continues to put pressure on household budgets, more Missourians are turning to public libraries for help with stretching their dollars.

Librarians across Missouri say they are seeing increased demand for resources that help people save money, learn new skills and access services they might otherwise pay for.

At the Columbia Public Library, Katie Grindrod was browsing the cookbook section in search of simple meal ideas.

Grindrod said she has always enjoyed cookbooks, but rising costs have made cooking at home more vital.

“It’s too expensive to go out anymore,” she said. “You could make something good at home for a lot less.”

Librarians say this interest in home cooking is strong across the state. According to the American Library Association, cookbooks remain one of the most popular nonfiction categories. Missouri librarians report steady demand for books focused on meal planning, budget-friendly recipes and home cooking.

Centralia Public Library Director Amy Hopkins said cookbooks continue to circulate frequently.

“We got ‘Eat Like a Girl,’ that one’s pretty popular by Mindy Pelz, ‘The Official Wednesday Cookbook,’ Rachel Ray,” Hopkins said. “I think there’s been a push more towards things like, not going out to eat, you know, cooking at home, things like that. They just are consistently being checked out.”

The trend extends beyond the kitchen. Librarians say more patrons are checking out books on personal finance, home repair, gardening and homesteading as they look for ways to become more self-sufficient.

Claudia Young, director of the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City, said demand for do-it-yourself resources has grown noticeably.

“Especially when it comes to people checking out books on basic home repair,” Young said. “Plumbing, building a fence or putting up drywall — things they may have paid for before but now want to learn to do themselves.”

Young said the library is also seeing steady demand for portable Wi-Fi hotspots, which provide internet access for patrons who may not have reliable service at home.

“They check out this hotspot for three weeks, they have to give it back, it fills another hold, and they put themselves back on the waiting list for it and come get it again. And I see that over and over and over again with certain people,” Young said. “So, I know that internet access for them is not something that they can afford.”

Libraries are also helping residents cut entertainment costs.

Robin Westphal, executive director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library, said more patrons are checking out DVDs as they reconsider monthly streaming subscriptions.

“What we’re hearing is that people are not doing the streaming services anymore because they’re trying to save money,” Westphal said.

Additionally, all the libraries have reported more patrons using their free streaming services such as Kanopy for shows and movies, and Hoopla for audiobooks, as a way to cut back on streaming costs.

American Library Association President Sam Helmick said libraries have historically seen increased use during periods of economic hardship.

“We’ve seen throughout American history that during economic decline, people really lean into their libraries,” Helmick said. “They’re there for everything from government forms and job assistance to providing a place with heat, cooling and running water.”

Back at the Columbia Public Library, Grindrod selected a children’s cookbook before leaving.

“I want my grandchildren to pick out recipes so I can make something different for dinner besides macaroni and cheese,” she said.

Some librarians worry about whether they will have sufficient resources to meet growing demand. While the Institute of Museum and Library Services has reinstated grants to libraries after successfully challenging the Trump Administration’s funding cuts, uncertainty remains about the future of federal support for libraries.

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Missouri home prices, sales increased in April

By Misbahul Haque, Missouri News Network 

The residential housing market in Missouri gained momentum in April, with sales activity and prices increasing on both a monthly and year-over-year basis, according to market statistics from the Missouri Realtors.

The jump, both in pending and closed sales, came as mortgage rates were hovering around 6.3% in April. However, Realtors described the robust sales as an outcome of comparatively lower mortgage rates in February and March.

Closed home sales statewide climbed to 6,733 units in April, up 21.2% from March and 22.5% higher than in April 2025. Pending sales of homes under contract rose to 7,291, with a month‑over‑month increase of 9.7% and a year-over-year gain of 8.2%.

“A lot of those homes that sold in April went under contract in February and March,” said Brian Toohey, CEO of the Mid-Missouri Board of Realtors.

He said that there was a time in that window when the mortgage rates were below 6%. As contracts typically take up to 45 days to close, those sales were reflected in April’s report.

Home prices also increased across the state, with the average sales price in April at $338,947, up 10.1% from March and 6.7% from April last year. The median sales price increased 7.7% from March and 4.5% from April 2025 to reach $280,000.

The year‑to‑date median sales price climbed to $273,000, up 7.1% from 2025 and 11.4% from 2024.

Toohey attributed the price surge to rising demand from move‑up buyers — existing homeowners who sell their current residence to purchase a larger or more expensive home — in higher price brackets.

“A lot of the homes that were sold in April are going to be second‑time buyers,” Toohey said. “Those are people who are going to be in that mid‑tier to upper‑end market, and that’s where we saw most of the sales.”

He also said that more existing homeowners were willing to list and sell their houses, providing more inventory.

Brett Reinhart, a real estate agent based in Springfield, called it the “busiest market” in his more than 20‑year career and noted a similar purchasing pattern on the ground.

“First‑time homebuyers are struggling a little bit more,” Reinhart said. “Most of the home sales are going to second‑time homebuyers.”

Reinhart, however, felt that the recent market trends did not have as much to do with mortgage rates.

“Our mortgage rates are still at a national average, which shouldn’t typically affect anybody,” he said.

What has changed, he said, is that home values climbed more than 40% while many wages could not keep pace. This price appreciation has boosted the market but narrowed who can afford to buy a home. For many first‑time buyers, the combination of higher prices and sluggish pay raises has eroded affordability.

Despite the robust sales activity in April, cumulative figures show that total sales so far this year remain below 2025 volumes. The year‑to‑date closed sales volume stood at 22,146, down 8.6% compared with the same period in 2025, though still 7% higher than in 2024. Active listings increased from 12,000 in February to 13,420 in March and 14,236 in April, expanding the choices available to buyers.