PANEL OKs MONEY FOR AREA SCHOOLS

A Missouri Senate committee has approved a measure to provide construction money for three education projects in Southeast Missouri.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday voted to earmark $2 million for a technology center for Southeast Missouri State University, $1.5 million for a new Cape Girardeau vocational-technical school and $1.5 million for a Sikeston education center.

The Legislature will meet today to put the finishing touches on the state's operating and capital improvements budget for fiscal 1998, which begins July 1.

The projects are included in a capital budget bill.

A House version would have funneled the entire $5 million through a consortium involving the university, and the region's vocational-technical schools and two community colleges.

But the Senate committee voted to appropriate the money through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the vocational-technical school and to the university for the technology center.

Funding for construction of a Sikeston education center would be dispensed through the consortium. Like the Cape Girardeau vocational-technical school, that project would require a local match.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said there is good reason to funnel money through the university-led consortium to open a Sikeston education center.

"They are not an area vo-tech school of the state. They come in only as part of Southeast Missouri State University's enhanced mission and through the consortium," Kinder said.

Kinder serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

He said the committee questioned the legality of funneling all $5 million through the university and leaving it up to the Board of Regents, in effect, to pass out the money.

The committee's action would assure that the money actually goes to the three projects, he said.

Kinder said differences in the House and Senate versions would have to be worked out today to meet the state budget deadline.

Kinder predicted the three projects will remain in the final budget. "I really think it is a win-win for the whole region," he said.