PROPOSED VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL PROJECTS WORTHY OF FUNDING

It is far from a done deal, but the Missouri House Thursday included $37 million for higher-education capital expenditures in its version of the state's capital budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, in addition to $147 million for two maximum-security prisons.

The House Budget Committee earlier found the $37 million for higher education in addition to the money for prisons. The committee's action included $2 million to begin construction of a technology center at Southeast Missouri State University, $1.5 million for a new Cape Girardeau vocational-technical school, and $1.5 million for an education center at Sikeston.

The committee added those projects along with money for other higher-education capital projects on state university campuses. Gov. Mel Carnahan, who says the prisons are a top priority, should be pleased that the House has given its nod to the prisons and included the $37 million for higher education as well.

The capital budget still must be passed by the Senate and differences ironed out in a conference committee before it ever gets to Gov. Carnahan's desk.

The university's capital-projects priority is to build a 40,000-square-foot technology center to replace its industrial-technology building and provide training in advanced manufacturing operations. It hopes to construct a polytechnic institute that focuses on technical training.

Estimated cost of the building is $5 million. The school likely would have to come up with the other $3 million from private sources.

The Cape Girardeau School District seeks $3 million to pay for half the cost of its vocational-technical school, and the $1.5 million the committee found for that project is essential to Cape Girardeau.

Few in Jefferson City would argue that Missouri doesn't need new prisons to ease the worsening prison overpopulation. But shortchanging educational needs in the process isn't essential.

The House Budget Committee went to the effort to search and find money for capital needs other than prisons, and the House has now seen fit to include funding for the universities. Gov. Carnahan has been a proponent of technical education in Missouri. If this legislation gets through the Senate unscathed, it hopefully will earn the governor's approval as well.