Education tops priorities for future prosperity

Education is the most important, critical and significant investment we can make in our future. To ensure 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.

I have signed budgets to increase our investment in elementary and secondary education by more than half-a-billion dollars in the past three years, an investment which we will increase to well more than $600 million next 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 also have 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 three-year plan will increase funding by more than $100 million.

Earlier this year, we passed a 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 need-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, based on a family’s ability to pay for college tuition.

It provides assistance to students at all of our private and public colleges and universities.

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 need-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 will recommend an additional $40 million in direct funding for Missouri colleges and universities in next year’s budget. That’s a 4.4 percent increase from last year and, since January of 2005, an increase of nearly $103 million, or just more than 12 percent.

On top of these increases, I will recommend an additional $13.4 million to support expanding health education 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 the health-related professions will create new opportunities for Missourians, making our state a better place to live, work and raise a family.

Matt Blunt is governor of Missouri. He can be reached through his Web site at www.gov.mo.gov.