Students say thanks to Governor Blunt

By Lucas Presson

Missouri college students owe Gov. Matt Blunt a multimillion-dollar thank you.

Southeast Missouri State University, as well as many other Missouri state schools, owe the Republican leadership in the Missouri Legislature and Governor Blunt a big thank you for their leadership in passing and signing into law the MOHELA higher education bill, Senate Bill 389.

This is the most comprehensive higher education package in Missouri's history. Between tuition stabilization, expanding scholarships and the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, state Republicans made students the first priority, and higher education was the winner.

From 2002 to 2006, tuition rates for Missouri's four-year public universities have soared 33.5 percent and 24.9 percent for Missouri community colleges, making it much tougher for students to pay for a quality college education.

With the new law, universities will not be allowed to raise tuition rates greater than the rate of inflation. It's unthinkable that quality students can't come to class because an administrator tells a professor the student failed to meet his payment schedule. While this bill promotes fiscal responsibility within universities, the main message sent from Jefferson City is, "It's time to relieve some of the financial pressures associated with being a college student."

The most exciting portion in the MOHELA package for students is the tripling of scholarships. The Access Missouri Financial Assistance Program will combine with the Gallagher and Guarantee scholarships to increase scholarships from $25 million to almost $75 million. This means the University of Missouri-Columbia will have scholarships increased from 1,000 to nearly 6,000. Southeast Missouri State will have scholarships increased from 300 to 1,900 -- more than a 500 percent increase.

Between need-based scholarships and doubling the Bright Flight scholarships, many more students will feel substantially less pressure as they attend classes.

A major component to this higher education package deals with the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative. This plan authorizes 28 university and college building developments totaling $260 million. Another $30 million will go to community college campuses and $15 million for business research within universities. Within this initiative, Southeast Missouri State University stands to receive $17.2 million for the new River Campus. Although there will be a tuition increase for SEMO students in 2007-2008 to help pay for the River Campus utilities, it's nice to know that this state assistance saves students from further tuition hikes due to the River Campus.

With all of these bold initiatives now signed into law, I say thank you to Missouri's education governor and the dedicated leadership in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Lucas Presson is the chairman of the SEMO College Republicans at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau.