(The Lion) — In a victory for Missouri families fighting for educational opportunities, a state judge has kept in place funding for Missouri’s K-12 scholarship program, MOScholars, as a lawsuit against it proceeds in court.

MOScholars, established by a state law in 2021, provides “educational opportunities and resources to Missouri students and families” by offering tax credits to scholarship donors. Eligible parents can use the donated funds to pay for a variety of school and education expenses, including private school tuition, tutoring, extracurriculars, transportation costs and textbooks.

After the state allocated $51 million to the program earlier this year, the Missouri National Education Association (NEA) filed a lawsuit seeking to block the expanded funding. The lawsuit contends that direct state funding to the scholarship program, rather than through donors who then receive tax credits, unconstitutionally “diverts taxpayer funds to private schools.” For comparison, the state has budgeted $4.3 billion for K-12 education in 2026.

Following a hearing in the case on Thursday, Judge Brian Stumpe in the Cole County Circuit Court denied the NEA’s request for a temporary restraining order – leaving the funding unblocked as the legal dispute continues.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey touted the judge’s decision as a “victory” for the state’s “landmark investment in school choice.”

“Today’s ruling is a victory for parents and kids across Missouri,” Bailey said in a statement. “For too long, bureaucrats and special interests have tried to trap children in schools that don’t meet their needs.”

He noted that the state’s funding would help “thousands of students, many from disadvantaged families, children with special needs, or students trapped in failing schools, to access scholarships.” Bailey said his office will “keep fighting until this baseless lawsuit is thrown out entirely.”

Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek said the denial of the temporary restraining order is “more than a legal victory – it’s a victory for Missouri families.”

“MOScholars is about giving parents the freedom to choose the educational path that best fits their child’s needs,” he said. “That freedom should never be taken away—not by bureaucrats, and certainly not by union bosses.”

EdChoice Legal Advocates, which is intervening in the case on behalf of three Missouri families who rely on MOScholars, told The Lion the state’s funding of MOScholars is constitutional.

“The original law created an open fund that could take revenue from any source, whether that be donated funds or appropriations or anything else,” ECLA attorney Bryan Cleveland told the Lion in an interview ahead of Thursday’s hearing.

Cleveland said ECLA’s arguments in court centers around two key points: “First, on the legal arguments, we’re going to back the state that the additional funding for the Missouri Scholars program is entirely legal,” he said. When it comes to who is harmed, he said “the only risk here is harming parents like our clients or other families that want to use the scholarship program,” pointing out “the lack of any harm to the teachers’ union which is suing.”

The ECLA represents three families who currently rely on MOScholars or are seeking scholarships for additional children, as The Lion reported. The families have used the funds for a variety of educational options, including helping children with reading challenges, covering tuition and school supplies amid rising costs, and assisting with learning differences.

If the state’s funding is eventually blocked, the families will be forced to make “difficult budget choices as they have to pay the tuition bills out of pocket,” he added. “For some of them, it may be groceries, for others, car repairs, for others, they might be looking at having to cut back on sports opportunities for their kids.”

The state’s funding increase is expected to add about 7,000 new scholarships to the MOScholars, according to the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri, which notes the new funding effectively triples the size of the program.

“For the thousands of CEAM families who have been patiently waiting on the program’s waitlist for years, this means their children are now in line to receive the educational opportunities they deserve,” the group said in a statement. MOScholars has “consistently faced funding challenges,” it added, since most donor contributions come in at the end of the year, while students need scholarships beginning in the fall.

Any future blockage of the $51 million in funding could negatively impact thousands of families that have been on the waitlist for a scholarship for years.

“MOScholars has provided Missouri families with increased educational options for several years,” ECLA Director of Litigation Thomas Fisher told The Lion previously. “The recent expansion of the program is constitutional and will expand education freedom for low-income families and students with learning differences.”

The Lion has reached out to the Missouri NEA for comment.