Aid is for students

By Carl Bearden

I read with interest John Lichtenegger's letter regarding the student financial aid proposal. It attempts to create a distorted picture of the proposal.

Missouri has two needs-based scholarships. They are commonly known as "Gallagher" and "Guarantee" and are provided to students, not institutions. Contrary to the assertion made in the letter, these scholarships have allowed students to use them at the institution of their choice, public or private, since their inception long ago. No change to already existing practice is being proposed.

A task force of financial aid officers from public and private institutions around the state was convened by the Coordinating Board of Higher Education for the purpose of streamlining and improving Missouri's need-based financial aid programs. This task force worked for more than 18 months developing a proposal to streamline the two scholarships into one. The writer failed to acknowledge the fact that public institutions participated and helped develop the program.

The writer doesn't agree with the longstanding state policy that Missouri taxpaying students and their parents choosing to attend private institutions receive financial assistance other than loans. He is entitled to that opinion, but it is not one shared by everyone. The chairman of the University of Missouri Board of Curators recently visited my office. He told me the University of Missouri system had participated in the development of the recommendation and had agreed with the recommendation and that the curators would support the recommendation.

I met with every president of Missouri's public four-year institutions. They agreed to support the task force's recommendation, and, if we were able to provide direct institutional funding that brought them back to their fiscal year 2002 funding levels, they would support increasing funding for scholarships. We are doing both over the course of the next three years.

No doubt those who disagree with this approach will point out that I contract with a private institution. I do some fund-raising unrelated to this issue. I do not know the financial impact to the institution, nor does it matter to me. I have long believed that it is the students who are our future, and the institutions they choose to attend are the vessels for preparing them for that future. We can and should support both.

Missouri consistently, along with 48 other states, gets an "F" on a national report card for higher-education funding. Interestingly enough, the "F" is not for underfunding public institutions, but rather primarily for underfunding need-based aid to students regardless of the institution they attend.

Need-based scholarships in Missouri have never been funded much more than 25 percent of their full funding level. We can support Missouri students and their parents by direct aid to institutions, which we do, resulting in almost $7,000 for every student in the University of Missouri system and by helping them with the ever-rising cost of a higher education through scholarships. Parents and students around the state agree.

Carl Bearden of St. Charles, Mo., represents the 16th District in the Missouri House of Representatives, where he is speaker pro tem.