Blunt touts education plan

An estimated 19,000 more Missourians annually would have access to college scholarships under a plan touted by Gov. Matt Blunt during a visit to Southeast Missouri State University on Friday.

"The new plan will have one simple formula," Blunt told a crowd of about 40 university and local officials and Southeast students gathered in the lobby of the University Center. "It will be based on a family's ability to pay for college."

The state's current need-based scholarship program serves 17,000 students. The new "Access Missouri" scholarship program would help fund college for an estimated 36,000 students.

Southeast officials estimate that the scholarship program could increase the number of students receiving state aid from the current 300 to as many as 1,900 students.

Watch Gov. Blunt's speech at http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/1580/