MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY -Higher education funding would virtually freeze under the proposed budget handed down by Gov. Matt Blunt before his State of the State address Wednesday night.
During the speech, Blunt said education is his top priority as governor. He allocated one of the budget's largest increases, of $170.6 million, to it. The majority of the new funding will go to support elementary and secondary education and their programs.
No significant changes were made in the higher education budget from the previous year.
"A college education is increasingly a requirement for success in the workplace," Blunt said. "My budget maintains the current level of funding for our state's colleges and universities."
The governor's proposed budget made substantial cuts to other programs including $231 million cut from Medicaid general revenue and nearly $40 million cut from the mental health general revenue.
With all these budget cuts, legislators from both parties said they were pleased the governor maintained the same levels of funding for higher education.
"With all the other cutting, I am pleased higher education will not bare the brunt, as it has for the last several years," said Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia.
Rep. Edward Robb, R-Columbia, said he expected the governor was going to freeze higher education funding this year, and focus on solving problems in lower education first. He said next year Blunt will be able to allocate more money to the colleges and universities.
"First we have to stop the bleeding, then we can address the programs that need it most, like rising tuition," Robb said.
Elementary and secondary school programs recieved the majority of money from the governor's proposal. The funding for Parents as Teachers increased $5 million. An extra $6 million will be used to help fund schools educating severly disabled children.