Higher education funding rejected
March 14, 2008
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The Missouri House Budget Committee rejected amendments Tuesday that would have reintroduced funding for a $13.4 million higher education initiative, Preparing to Care, which was created to increase the number of health care professionals in Missouri.
State Reps. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, and Ed Robb, R-Columbia, both proposed amendments to reinstate the funding, which would have been split between all of Missouri’s two-year and four-year higher education institutions.
The initiative had originally requested $38 million for the program, and Gov. Matt Blunt recommended an allocation of $13.4 million. The initiative would seek to augment the number of graduates entering various health care areas, and would have drawn funding from the Access Missouri financial assistance program.
Baker said she would attempt to propose another amendment to reinstate funding for the program when the budget bills reach the House floor. Baker also proposed an amendment Tuesday that would raise allocation increases in next year’s budget from 4 percent to about 4.2 percent, which is the amount the UM system had requested, as well as the amount Blunt had recommended for the allocation. That amendment was also rejected.
The amount the UM system will receive represents a $700,000 reduction from the governor’s recommendation, UM system spokesman Scott Charton said in an e-mail.
Robb said he would also propose an amendment to reinstate funding for the program when the entire House votes on the budget bills. He said he would look for sources of funding for the program outside of the Access Missouri program.
House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, said Monday that because of downturns in the economy the state would have a “difficult time” allocating funds for new programs.
Charton said though legislators in the Missouri General Assembly have to weigh many competing needs in the state, he said educating health care professionals should be high on their list of priorities.
“The need for additional health care professionals does not go away,” Charton said.
Associated Students of the University of Missouri Legislative Director Craig Stevenson said the legislators who voted against allocating funds for the program might have had concerns about sustaining the program — which was intended to serve Missouri’s colleges and universities on a long-term basis — because it would draw funding from the Access Missouri fund, which was budgeted for one year.
“I think they’re trying to be cautious about how they are going to spend money,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson said he sent e-mails to the presidents of all of Missouri’s two-year and four-year institutions to request that they take action to reintroduce the program into the state’s budget.
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