STATE SHOULD TAKE NOTICE OF NOVEL MALDEN FACILITY

One of the problems with living in Southeast Missouri away from the metropolitan areas, away from the hub of governmental dominion in the state's center is that you have to yell with increasing volume just to spread some good news. Take the case of the Harry L. Crisp Bootheel Education Center in Malden: It remains an extraordinary story of success in higher education whose most persistent problem is being heard. If Jefferson City isn't listening yet, those of us in Southeast Missouri should at least recognize the value of that facility.

Little about the Bootheel Education Center seems ordinary. It is the child of a cooperative effort between Southeast Missouri State University, Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, the University of Missouri Extension and several vocational-technical schools. It is housed in what had been a soft-drink bottling plant, which was donated by a Southeast Missouri State benefactor. It is located in and serves some of the poorest counties in the state. It breaks the mold in terms of students going away to college; in this case, the college has gone to the students.

In short, the consortium of schools that created and are involved in operating the Malden facility have shown considerable invention and commitment to service. When the center opened in 1988, no more than 150 were enrolled; by this spring, the enrollment was three and a half times that number. For reasons of proximity and financial circumstance, the center remains, quite simply, the only higher education option for many of the students who attend. In staying close to home and taking freshman and sophomore level courses offered in Malden, some of the students find themselves enriched by the experience and inspired to continue their education at the parent school in Cape Girardeau or elsewhere.

The job of universities is usually associated with the loftier aspects of education, yet the Malden center serves a role in creating an environment of learning in a part of Missouri that needs it desperately. Neighboring Pemiscot County has the highest illiteracy rate in the state, with nearly 20 percent of the adult population lacking fundamental reading skills. Nearby New Madrid and Mississippi counties rank in the top five of this dismal category. Where better to do some good than where the need is greatest?

And for all the potential good that can come from this center, officials in Jefferson City still don't take notice. The legislature continues to let the cooperating schools assume most of the load in running the Malden center, not even earmarking funds to pay for overhead costs. The facility operates at a deficit.

We believe the Bootheel Education Center is important to Southeast Missouri and hope Gov. Carnahan and the General Assembly will come to believe this in the future. In a meeting at Malden last week, Southeast Missouri State President Kala Stroup said of the center, "It's a hard sell. ... We need to continually make our case (in Jefferson City)." We hope the day will come when the case won't have to be made, when this innovative facility will get its due recognition at the state level.