Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek’s office made a last-minute push in the closing hours of the legislative session to stop lawmakers from moving the state’s private school voucher program to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
But the largest scholarship-granting organization in the program did not join the public show of support.
With just a day left in session last month, the treasurer’s office asked the educational assistance organizations that administer MOScholars scholarships to sign a letter opposing the proposed transfer.
Six of the seven signed.
The Herzog Tomorrow Foundation, which serves roughly a third of MOScholars students and is tied to one of the state’s most influential advocates for Christian education, did not.
Herzog is not a marginal player in MOScholars. The foundation administers more scholarships than any other organization, giving its silence unusual weight in a last-minute fight over who should oversee the program.
Its influence extends beyond the voucher program. The foundation is barred from direct electoral activity because it is a charity, but businesses and political entities connected to Herzog have poured millions of dollars over the years into Missouri campaigns.
The letter Herzog did not sign framed the proposed transfer as a threat to the families MOScholars was created to serve.
“At its core, MOScholars exists because participating families determined that the traditional educational system was not adequately serving their children,” the statement says. “Transferring administration of the program to (the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) would place these families back under the oversight of the very system they willingly chose to leave.”
The document bears the signs of a rushed process. It is erroneously dated 2025, and placeholder text remains below each of the six signatures.
The letter was hand-delivered to the desk of state Rep. Jim Murphy, a Republican from St. Louis County, on the morning of May 15, the last day of the 2026 session. As chairman of the House Fiscal Review Committee, Murphy was one of the few lawmakers with the power to stop the bill before it reached the House floor.
As The Independent previously reported, Murphy killed the bill after receiving a call from St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski urging him to oppose it.
But the debate over who should oversee MOScholars is unlikely to disappear.
Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a Democrat from Affton, said he will continue pursuing legislation to add oversight to the program. House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told The Independent he thinks the bill would have passed if there had been more time.
“It has always been somewhat of a curious thing that MOScholars is under the treasurer’s purview, and not with (the education department),” said Patterson, who is running for a seat in the Missouri Senate. “I think it is worth having a conversation again. I just think 24 hours just wasn’t enough.”
MOScholars has faced scrutiny in recent years as it has grown from a tax-credit-funded scholarship program into one backed by direct state spending.
The treasurer’s office has inadvertently released donor information and, in a separate incident, student names and schools. When MOScholars was funded exclusively through tax-credit-eligible donations, some students waited months into the school year for scholarship money.
These difficulties have put pressure on the educational assistance organizations, which function as liaisons for families and schools in the program. When funding lagged, some fronted student tuition payments with their own money and reimbursed themselves later.
Josh Swartz, director of schools for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, told The Independent the problems feel like “growing pains” for a program still in its infancy.
“I think the State Treasurer’s Office is working really hard as this program continues to scale,” he said. “Has it been a bumpy ride? Yes, but I think that’s to be expected as you watch this program scale.”
When the office asked him to sign the letter, Swartz said he wanted to show support for a team he believes is taking steps to improve the program.
Jean Evans, who advocates for vouchers and similar programs as a political consultant and the Missouri lead for the American Federation for Children, told The Independent that families receiving MOScholars funding are overwhelmingly happy with the program.
“Anytime you have a new program, there’s going to be challenges that you did not foresee,” she said. “I think that (the treasurer’s office) has done a good job of meeting those challenges and overcoming them and making it good for families.”
Evans defended the treasurer’s administration of the program, saying problems like the data leak were “unfortunate” but quickly resolved. She speculated that Herzog’s silence may have more to do with power dynamics.
“The treasurer semi-regulates the educational assistance organizations,” Evans said. “It is not uncommon for those who are being regulated to be frustrated with the person or entity regulating them.”
A spokesman for Herzog Tomorrow Foundation declined to comment on why the organization did not sign the letter. The treasurer’s office would not say whether Herzog had raised any concerns about the office’s handling of the program.
Herzog’s absence from the letter came at the same time at least one Republican lawmaker with Herzog ties was helping advance the proposal to move the program’s oversight.
State Sen. Rusty Black, a Republican from Chillicothe, took responsibility for adding the proposal to switch MOScholars administration to the now-defeated education bill. He told The Independent that the push arose out of “people’s concerns about how much difficulty (the program) has been having with it under the treasurer’s office.”
Black has close ties to the Herzog network. During his 2022 campaign, Black’s campaign committee and political action committee received over $185,000 from committees tied to Herzog, according to Missouri Ethics Commission reports.
Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, a Republican from Parkville with control over the chamber’s debate calendar, also has ties to the foundation. During his 2022 reelection campaign, he collected nearly $130,000 from committees tied to Herzog.
Luetkemeyer’s wife is a partner at the Kansas City law firm founded by Todd Graves, who also leads the Stanley M. Herzog Foundation, the broader entity connected to Herzog Tomorrow Foundation.
Luetkemeyer, who did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment, signaled shortly after negotiations concluded May 14 that he planned to bring the education package up for debate and that it would have “additional provisions.”
In a social media post the following day, Malek called out the Senate’s actions as an affront “pushed by liberal Democrats and a few moderate Republicans.”
In the Senate, nine Democrats and 10 Republicans approved the education package, including Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville. In March, Malek endorsed Brattin in the GOP primary for Missouri’s 5th Congressional District.
The bill “would have dismantled key education reforms in Missouri,” Malek wrote on social media. “I’m proud to run the MOScholars program and will always fight to protect education reform that empowers parents and students.”
