Governor's Column - December 14
by Governor Matt Blunt
Increased Funding for Missouri Students
As governor I have worked to increase opportunity in our state and to plant seeds for future prosperity. Education is the most important, critical, and significant investment we can make in our future. To ensure future prosperity, Missouri students must have access to the knowledge and skills they need to compete in a global economy.
I pledged that education would be my highest priority when I ran for governor and I have kept that commitment. I have signed budgets to increase our investment in elementary and secondary education by more than half a billion dollars over the past three years, an investment which we will increase to well over $600 million this year if the General Assembly follows my budget recommendations. I have also encouraged investments in Math, Engineering, Technology, and Science - four subjects vital for economic opportunity in the 21st Century.
We have also increased funding for Missouri colleges and universities. Last year, we provided a 2.4 percent increase. This year we increased funding by 4.7 percent. Altogether, in three budgets we have increased higher education funding by nearly $62 million or 7.3 percent, and my 3 year plan will increase funding by more than 100 million dollars.
Earlier this year, we passed an historic higher education improvements bill to fund new world-class learning centers for our students, and, just as importantly, to ensure that public colleges and universities remain affordable - by keeping future tuition increases reasonable for Missouri families and dramatically increasing the number of needs-based scholarships available to Missouri students.
We created the Access Missouri Scholarship program to level the playing field for scholarship applicants and ensure that Missouri's neediest students receive aid. Instead of having multiple complex formulas, the new Access Missouri Scholarship program has one simple formula. It is based on a family's ability to pay for college. It provides assistance to students at all of our private and public colleges and universities. Through my budget, needs-based scholarship funding for Missouri students was increased. Across the state last year, 16,400 students received needs-based scholarships. This year, we have more than doubled that number, with 36,000 students having already received aid.
Access Missouri Scholarships are making higher education more affordable for thousands of young Missourians and their families and making Missouri a state of greater opportunity. And that is why I am recommending even more for needs-based scholarships. In next year's budget, I will recommend a $100 million investment in Missouri college and university students through Access Missouri. Under this proposal, we will have quadrupled our investment in college scholarships for Missouri students since January 2005.
Just as we have dramatically increased our investment in elementary and secondary education, so too have we continually made significant increases for higher education. I am pleased to announce that I will recommend an additional $40 million in direct funding for Missouri colleges and universities in next year's budget. That is a 4.4 percent increase from last year, and, since January of 2005, an increase of nearly $103 million, or just over 12 percent.
On top of these increases, I will recommend an additional $13.4 million to support expanding health programs throughout the state. The investment will help expand education opportunities for Missouri students pursuing careers in health related fields and will ultimately expand Missourians' access to care.
The additional $13.4 million will create new opportunities for an additional 171 students at four-year institutions and 146 students at two-year institutions. Missouri students will benefit from increased access to the health related professions, and all Missourians will benefit through a greater supply of health professionals to treat and heal our state's citizens.
Together, these new investments in Missouri students, Missouri schools, and in the health related professions will create new opportunities for Missourians, making our state a better place to live, work and raise a family.