Missouri school leaders are used to making difficult decisions. Every year, superintendents and their leadership teams and their boards work to balance student needs, community expectations and staffing challenges with the demands and financial realities of operating a school district, but these upcoming months are different. Missouri is entering a new fiscal era. One where federal money is leaving state and local funds, Missouri’s state budget outlook is bleak and local property tax revenues are becoming increasingly uncertain. Watch for those A.I.-generated Missouri anti-income tax campaign ads on television if you don’t believe what you read. Ahead of the governor’s final signature on budget bills this month, the FY27 budget falls roughly $190 million short of fully funding the state’s foundation formula requested by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). That estimate does not include the shortfall in funding the school transportation formula, a $20 million…