SPENDING ON HIGHER ED REFLECTS BOOM TIMES

The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education delivered some interesting news to public higher education when it brought its meeting to Cape Girardeau this month.

The board decided to recommend to the governor and Legislature that the state spend $1.23 billion next fiscal year to finance public colleges and higher-education programs in the state. The funding request includes more than $150 million for student financial aid. The $1.23 billion is $131 million more than is being spent this fiscal year, a 13.2 percent increase.

The board also proposed that $157 million be spent on capital improvements for the state's four-year institutions and another $4.5 million in capital improvements for the state's community colleges.

Southeast Missouri State University will fare well if the board's recommendation is accepted. Its operating budget for 2001 would total almost $54 million, about $6 million more than the current fiscal year. Statewide, the coordinating board wants to spend $23.7 million on mission enhancements at public, four-year schools, and Southeast would get $1.52 million.

The board recommended $11.95 million in capital improvements spending for second-year funding of Southeast's planned River Campus project, which will convert the former St. Vincent Seminary into a school for the visual and performing arts. The River Campus project ranks fourth on the coordinating board's priority list of projects for four-year institutions, behind projects at Northwest Missouri State University, Lincoln University and Harris-Stowe State College.

Southeast's president, Dr. Ken Dobbins, said ranking the River Campus project fourth among 15 spending projects should almost assure the funding even if only $40 million of the capital-improvements spending is finally approved. The board recommends $40 million be spent for the top four projects.

What does all of the recommended spending mean? It means that public higher education in Missouri is going after its share of the wealth that state government is enjoying because of good economic times. With the state budget increasing annually at 8 to 10 percent in recent years, the growth is far higher than the rate of inflation.