State distributes first round of MOHELA funds

The initiative is a partnership between the state and the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, by which MOHELA will sell portions of its out-of-state student loans to provide $350 million to the Missouri Development Finance Board. The board will distribute $335 million among Missouri colleges and universities for capital improvement projects and $15 million to the Department of Economic Development Missouri Technology Corp.

On Monday, the board issued the first round of funds, sending $22,273 to MSU and $39.3 million to six other schools and Missouri Technology Corp., which works to attract and retain high-technology companies and commercialize existing research.

The MOHELA funds will be dispersed over the next five years. MSU is slated to receive a total of $34.7 million, including $29.7 million for facility renovations and $5 million for the MSU Business Incubator Facility, which will house companies that are recruited by MSU or spun off from MSU research.

Payment amounts reimburse four-year colleges and universities for actual expenditures and are determined by information the schools provide each month. Community college payments are set at $2 million and distributed by request.

A list of the schools receiving funding and their planned projects is available at www.ded.mo.gov/lcdi.