Mo. House approves Access Missouri changes
The bill equalizes public and private school scholarships.
Published April 23, 2010
The Missouri House passed a bill Thursday that would equalize the scholarship amounts private and public school students get under the Access Missouri program.
"Equalizing Access Missouri scholarships for students attending public and private institutions ensures the most responsible use of the state's limited taxpayer dollars," Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement.
Access Missouri is a need-based, state-funded program that gives scholarships to both public and private university students. But since it's beginning, there has been a sizable difference in the amount of money a public school student could get compared to someone going to a private school.
Public school students can get between $1,000 and $2,150, and private college students are eligible for $2,000 to $4,600 per year from the program, according to previous Maneater reports.
Under the proposed bill, those amounts would be equal for all students and range from $1,500 to $2,850. The bill also lowers the GPA a student with less than 60 credit hours needs to qualify for the program.
If passed by the Missouri Senate, a student would need a 2.0 GPA to get money from the program, until he or she has more than 60 hours of credit, when he or she would need a 2.5 GPA.
The funding change received wide support, passing by a vote of 145-10. This vote came as a surprise said Joe Karl, Associated Students for the University of Missouri legislative director.
ASUM and Karl lobby at the state level for MU students on issues directly affecting them.
He said it was a surprise because another bill, Senate Bill 733, already addresses the issue of equalization.
"Obviously, we're supportive of equalization of Access Missouri," he said. "We've been lobbying for that all year, we were just surprised it came in this vehicle."
Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia, amended House Bill 1473 so she could get a chance to make the change happen earlier. The funding changes won't take place until the 2014-2015 school year, but Still wanted to see them happen earlier.
"My concern is that in 2014, we'll have a different set of players," Still said. "And they are going to have a very compelling argument that 'these students are juniors so we should hold off one or two more years before equalizing the amounts.' "
Instead of these changes happening all at once, Still said she wanted the scholarships to be equalized for incoming freshmen, starting in fall 2011. Each year after that, the changes would affect the next incoming class, until all students would get the equalized amounts. Her plan to slowly phase in the changes was defeated.
"Equalization is a good thing to do, and in the end, even though I wanted this to happen earlier, I still voted for the bill," Still said.
The 2014-2015 school year was the earliest date private schools would agree to, Karl said. He said without their support, the measure might have received fewer votes.