Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Access Missouri Funding Pits Private Versus Public

WATCH THE KY3 NEWS @ 10 REPORT HERE

***WATCH EXTRA CLIPS ABOVE***
Drury President Todd Parnell and Rep. Sara Lampe debate the merits of Governor Nixon's plan to shift some scholarship funding from private colleges to public institutions.

SPRINGFIELD -- A plan to cut state scholarships at private schools has students worried about their future.

Governor Jay Nixon is proposing to cut Access Missouri Scholarships at private colleges and independent universities in order to shift that money to public institutions.

Access Missouri is a $95 million dollar program that provides scholarships to tens of thousands of students at both public and private universities. Private schools complain that Nixon's plan is unfair.

Laura Gaska is a student working her way through the architecture program at Drury University, with the help of a $4600 Access Missouri Scholarship. That's the maximum amount a student can receive.

"It would really be a financial burden to have to go and get a private loan to subsidize what that isn't taking care of," Gaska said.

Nixon's plan would cut Gaska's private scholarship money. It would take the take the $4,600 dollar maximum scholarship for private school students down to $2,850 a year, and use the extra money to boost public scholarships to the same level.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Rep Lampe - you were there when it was voted on.

It's fortunate we didn't have people like Lampe representing us after World War II. The GI Bill would never have come to fruition providing for the real recovery of our country after WWII.

She would have not allowed it to be used at "private" schools which would have meant we would not have the business base and companies started and vibrant economy we enjoyed for so long.

Lampe is a populist and has no long term vision for what is good for our state.