Blunt tours career center, touts proposed increases in education funding

Gov. Matt Blunt crisscrossed the state Friday, stopping in Cape Gir?ardeau to tout increases in education funding he is recommending, including $121 million for the state's funding formula.

This is third time Blunt has spoken in Cape Girardeau in about a month, as he prepares to seek re-election in November.

Before his speech, Blunt toured the Career and Technology Center, visiting Teresa Compton's "Careers in Health" class to have his blood pressure taken by a student. It was 104 over 58, "really good," Compton said.

State Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, introduced Blunt, and later explained how the district's removal from the classification as "hold harmless" has benefited Cape Girardeau schools.

The district received an additional $480,000 after the funding formula change; previously funding had been essentially frozen for more than a decade due to a high local property tax base.

"The fact that hold harmless was eliminated on his watch is an accomplishment of which he can be very proud," Dr. Mike Cowan, principal of Central High School, said after the news conference. "And that's coming from a liberal Democrat," he joked.

Blunt is calling for an additional $2 million for the Parents as Teachers program and is recommending about $750,000 to train teachers to lead Advanced Placement courses.

Next year, Central High School will offer AP Spanish, French, human geography and American history, bringing the number of AP courses from 11 to 15.

Cowan said that existing staff will teach the courses but teachers will go through a week of training this summer. He said AP training was already something provided in the past.

Blunt said his funding recommendations will allow the Career and Technology Center to offer "Lead the Way" classes next year, curriculum that exposes students to the engineering field.

Rich Payne, director of the center, said he is applying for a grant that would provide for the program.

Prior to the conference, Payne said he plans to speak to the Senate and House appropriations committees next week about funding for vocational education.

"As the governor has increased funding for K to 12 education, that has allowed sending schools to send more students to the career center," he said. However, at the same time, state "funding that supports career and technology education has flatlined."

In fiscal year 2008, the governor recommended $76.4 million in funding for vocational and adult education. This year, he recommended $72.6 million.

When asked about why his recommendation decreased, he paused and said, "That's a good question," before asking for a reporter's business card to respond later.

Jessica Robinson, Blunt's spokeswoman, said later that while appropriations have gone down in the past, there has been no real change in actual expenditures, and that Blunt's recommendation is a closer match to what expenditures tend to be. She said the difference in appropriations and expenditures could be tied to timing differences with federal money allocated.

Blunt said he supports increases in teacher pay but said the decision of how to allocate money is "best made by school boards."

House Speaker Rod Jetton has said he will introduce a bill to raise the minimum salary of first-year teachers from $23,000 to $31,000.

Dr. Steve Trautwein, school board president, said afterward he was "pleased to hear what the governor said" about local control over salaries.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

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