Governor’s Column by Governor Matt Blunt
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The Access Missouri Scholarship program we created this year is making a tremendous, positive impact for Missouri students and families more than doubling the number of scholarships for students when compared to the previous year and helping ensure that Missouri students have the resources they need to reach their full potential.
We created the Access Missouri Scholarship program to level the playing field for scholarship applicants and ensure that Missouri’s neediest students receive aid. Instead of having multiple complex formulas, the new Access Missouri Scholarship program has one simple formula based on a family’s ability to pay for college. It provides assistance to all of our colleges and universities. Through my budget, need-based scholarship funding for Missouri students was increased this year by $45 million.
This week I had the opportunity to visit Northwest Missouri State University to highlight the benefits of the Access Missouri program. Last year at Northwest Missouri State a total of 190 students benefitted from state-administered need-based scholarships and across the state 16,400 students received aid. This year 1,219 students at Northwest Missouri State have already received financial assistance under Access Missouri and more than 33,000 students statewide have already received aid under the new program.
I am keeping my commitment to Missourians that education will be my highest priority. Education is the most important, critical, and significant investment we can make in our future. To ensure future prosperity, Missouri students must have access to the knowledge and skills they need to compete in a global economy. That is why we have increased funding for elementary and secondary education by half a billion dollars over the past three years, and have paid increased attention to Math, Engineering, Technology, and Science – four subjects vital for economic opportunity in the 21st Century.
We have also increased funding for Missouri colleges and universities. Last year, we provided a 2.4 percent increase. This year we increased funding by 4.7 percent and my three year plan will increase funding by more than $100 million.
This year I also signed a historic higher education improvements bill to fund new world-class learning centers for our students, and, just as important, to ensure that public colleges and universities remain affordable, by dramatically increasing the number of scholarships available to Missouri students and keeping tuition increases reasonable.
Missourians can take pride in the fact that we have increased scholarship funding from $27.5 million to $72.5 million improving opportunities for thousands of Missourians. I am very pleased that with this new program more Missouri students will have access to needs-based scholarships. These scholarships will help further their education, lead to fulfilling careers and improve their quality of life.