Area projects slated to receive $7M in federal bill

The Senate Health-Education-Labor fiscal 2008 spending bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. It must pass the full Senate and be reconciled with the House of Representatives version.

The bill’s funding includes:

• $600,000 for Springfield to fund program development, expansion, equipment and technology for the Ready to Learn program, which improves school readiness;

• $1 million for Missouri State University to expand and purchase equipment for the Distance Learning Project on its West Plains campus;

• $200,000 for the Crisis Nursery of the Ozarks – which opens today at 2750 W. Bennett St. – for programming, equipment services and to provide emergency respite child care services to families in crisis; and

• $775,000 for Crowder College in Neosho to expand its capacity in targeted technical education programs for the region’s work force development.