State budget reductions affect scholarships

MOREnet lost all its state funding due to cuts.

By Jimmy Hibsch

Published June 19, 2010

Several college scholarship programs took a big hit with about $300 million in state budget cuts announced by the governor Thursday.

“Some might say we’ve been belt-tightening,” Gov. Jay Nixon said at a news conference Thursday. “We may have to punch another hole in the belt this time.”

Nixon announced a $301.4 million cut in spending reductions – about $280 million from state program cuts and $20 million to be offset by increased federal funding. These cuts come after $900 million in cuts during the 2010 fiscal year, which ends June 30. State budget director Linda Luebbering said the cuts were necessary for two reasons.

“One, our state revenue collections continue to come in less than expected," Luebbering said. "Two, there was some legislation that needed to be passed in order to save money and the legislature was not able to get it all passed.”

Among the hardest hit was the Access Missouri college scholarship program, which lost $50 million of its $83 million. The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority may offset this with a one-time $30 million grant. The Access Missouri program currently provides need-based scholarships of up to $2,150 for students at MU and other public state, as well as various other amounts for private institutions and community colleges. Luebbering said the cuts may shrink the awards to $500 at public institutions.

Also affected is the state’s Bright Flight scholarship program, which will lose $4.1 million, about a quarter of its state funding. The merit-based program currently offers high-achieving high school seniors a $2,000 scholarship to attend a Missouri post-secondary college or university. The Missouri Department of Higher Education predicts the scholarship will drop to $1,900 for the 2010-2011 school year.

Nicole Jones, an incoming freshman journalism student, will be receiving the Bright Flight scholarship for the next four years. As a result of the statewide cuts, she may receive $400 less than Bright Flight scholars in the past.

“I personally am not very happy about it because they already cut it this year and that's money you count on from the time you get your ACT score back if it's high enough,” Jones said. “I'm also glad that at least I am guaranteed that much money from it because I wouldn't be surprised if they end up raising the necessary score with that big of a cut.”

In the fall 2009 semester, 60 percent of Missouri students received some form of financial assistance such as the Access Missouri or Bright Flight scholarships.

Despite all of the higher education cuts, the tuition freeze agreement Nixon reached with public four-year colleges remains safe, Luebbering said.

"The tuition freeze is a high priority for the governor,” she said. “Even if we have to make more cuts, I don’t see that deal ending.”

The Missouri Research and Education Network, or MOREnet, a consortium of schools, public libraries, higher education institutions and the University of Missouri System, lost $6.8 million, all of its state funding.

Members of the MOREnet council met Friday to determine the future of the 20-year-old consortium, which provides technical services and high-speed Internet connections to its members. The council unanimously agreed to continue all services by enforcing budget reductions and increasing member fees, executive director John Gillispie said.

“The governor faced an incredibly difficult decision,” he said. “We find the result unfortunate and disappointing at best.”

Gillispie said MOREnet will cover 20 percent of its reduction by further lowering the operating budget, and compensate for the rest by raising member fees.

“The state subsidy, which has traditionally been used to equalize services between urban and rural areas will no longer be available,” Gillispie said. “MOREnet has no choice but to increase fees in order to make up for this loss of resources.”

Although Luebbering said she hopes Thursday’s cutbacks will suffice for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins July 1, she acknowledged she isn’t certain.

“We had to make cuts in just about every area of state government,” Luebbering said. “We’re hoping that the revenue will start to turn around a little bit and the $300 million the governor had to reduce will keep us in balance for the entire fiscal year. We obviously don’t know anything for sure, but we’ll continue to monitor it.”