Governor’s Column - February 29, 2008
by Governor Matt Blunt
Supporting Missouri's Institutions of Higher Learning
When I ran for governor I promised to make education my highest priority. I fought to change the old way that had allowed education funding to become a pawn in budget battles. Students, teachers and classrooms suffered under the way things were. When education was just an afterthought, education funding was cut and withheld to cover out-of-control spending in other areas.
We kept our promise never to cut or withhold education funding. In fact my budgets represent the largest increase in education funding without a tax increase. Over the last three years we have put Missouri students first.
It is my goal for students in Missouri to know that they can receive a world class education in Missouri and that the opportunities available at Missouri colleges and universities will serve them well through life.
Higher education is an investment and students who choose to attend a college or university in Missouri can be assured that they will receive a high-quality education that has a good return on their investment.
With cooperative and productive relationships with higher education officials and presidents across the state, we secured an historic higher education package that will provide Missouri students with unprecedented assistance in attending quality higher education institutions in Missouri.
We have more than doubled scholarship funding for students, have increased funding for higher education and are providing $335 million for state-of-the-art learning centers for students through my Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative.
One of the higher education institutions that is benefiting from the changes we have enacted is the University of Missouri System in Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis and Rolla. The University of Missouri is one of the nation's largest and most prestigious public research universities, with more than 63,000 students on four campuses. They are on the cutting edge of forward-looking research in field such as the life sciences, and a partner in our efforts to help students learn and apply skills in math, engineering, technology and science.
I am looking forward to working with its new president, Gary Forsee, who I believe shares my commitment to the University of Missouri and higher education in our state. His leadership capabilities and deep roots in Missouri will bring valuable expertise and experience to the four campus system and I believe he will serve our state and students well.
The Missouri General Assembly recently passed two important priorities for the system, my funding proposal for the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Pharmacy and Nursing Building with the passage of House Bill 2019.
The Ellis Fischel Cancer Center will receive $31.2 million from the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative to help deliver high-quality, comprehensive cancer care in a new, state-of-the-art facility and help to increase the capacity of cancer clinics to accommodate projected increases in new cancer patients due to an aging population.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City will receive $15 million through the initiative to provide needed space for new educational and instructional areas in nursing and pharmacy with enhanced student services and state-of-the-art classroom and clinical simulation laboratory spaces.
Through the Lewis and Clark Discovery initiative we are also completing important projects at UMR, UMSL and UMC's agricultural research facilities.
University of Missouri students are also benefiting from the Access Missouri Scholarship program we created to level the playing field for scholarship applicants and ensure that Missouri's neediest students receive the support they need to make an investment in their future.
The Access Missouri Scholarship program is providing more than 38,000 students with scholarships including 8,074 University of Missouri students, and has distributed more than $51 million in needs-based assistance so far this school year.
Of course in addition to its many achievements in academic excellence, the University of Missouri is also home to the Mizzou Tigers who had a tremendous season winning the Big 12 North Championship, defeating the Kansas Jayhawks to earn a national No. 1 ranking and beginning this year with a victory over Arkansas at the Cotton Bowl.
Missouri is home to many great colleges and universities such as the University of Missouri System. To support these institutions of higher learning we have changed the policies of the past by ending the education funding cuts and withholdings and supporting the students who attend these colleges and universities.