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Education
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Governor Matt Blunt's highest priority: Missouri's children. He has proven his commitment to our future by putting more dollars into early learning, Missouri classrooms and scholarships to help ensure Missouri children receive the best possible education. His goal: truly world class education for our students.
Putting Classrooms First. Governor Blunt's budgets put children first, and he has increased funding for Missouri classrooms by more than half a billion dollars with no job-killing tax increases on hard-working families. This focus on classrooms is in stark contrast to the previous practices by Jay Nixon's party of withholding school funds, slashing higher education and constantly calling for higher taxes to cover the cost of out of control spending.
Supporting Colleges and Universities. This year, the Governor proposed and enacted a plan to increase funding for colleges and universities by $40 million a year for the next three years, while demanding that accountability measures be put in place for Missouri higher education institutions, including measures that will keep tuition low for Missouri families.
Improved Access to Education Through Scholarships. Recognizing families and students need assistance to ensure they can attend Missouri colleges and universities, the Governor has increased funding for student scholarships and improved the Missouri scholarship program, called Access Missouri Scholarship. Access Missouri is more predictable and easier for families to understand,
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helping parents and students plan for their education after high school. In the past two years, Governor Blunt has increased scholarship funding from $25 million to the current level of $72.5 million. This increase is estimated to help 36,000 students receive scholarships to attend Missouri institutions, up from 17,000 previously.
Ending Cuts to Higher Education. When Governor Blunt took office, he immediately ended the severe cuts on higher education put into place by the previous administration. Last year, he won an added $20 million for colleges and universities, the first significant funding increase for higher education in years.
Bringing Campuses Into The 21st Century.Governor Blunt's innovative Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative is a blueprint for long-range excellence in higher education, offering $335 million for capital improvements on campuses across the state. At a time when students need classrooms where they can learn from current technology and equipment to prepare them for the high-tech workforce, Missouri institutions need support to improve their facilities that, for many, were built for learning in the 1950s. Not surprisingly, Jay Nixon opposed Governor Blunt's bold plan to boost higher education and used his office to launch unfounded political attacks in an attempt to stop the flow of important funding to our colleges and universities. While Governor Blunt is working hard to move Missouri forward and putting students and families first, Nixon is in the midst of a three year long campaign from the Attorney General's office.
A Fair School Funding Formula.Governor Blunt proposed and signed into law the new, fairer school funding formula to distribute state aid on the basis of student and classroom needs instead of rewarding schools based on their high local taxes.
Supporting Parents as Teachers. Governor Blunt's budgets also recognize the importance of early learning and helping parents become their child's first teacher. He has increased funding to the Parents As Teachers program, ensuring more families are served by this Missouri program that has become internationally recognized.
After School Programs. Governor Blunt has worked closely with educators and business leaders to collaborate on supporting education programs that not only will help prepare students to be successful, productive citizens, but also will help support working Missouri families. The Governor has created partnerships and coalitions at the local levels that support after school programs, helping to keep children safe between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and incorporating strong math and science programs to give Missouri students an edge in these important subjects.
Sales Tax Holiday.To help families with their budgets, the Governor signed into law welcomed tax relief through the sales tax holiday for school supplies and related needs.
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