It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
In outlining his proposal to re-structure state government, Governor Jay Nixon mentioned the possibility of ending scholarships for students who attend private colleges and universities in Missouri. Officials from one private university in St. Louis said they were quote--outraged by the speech, and are taking a stand against these funding changes. They’ll be protesting today (Monday). KSMU’s Royal Yates has more.
Hundreds of students, parents, and faculty members are expected to protest at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis. At issue are comments Governor Jay Nixon made recently about ending scholarships for students at private universities through the ACCESS Missouri program. If lawmakers actually passed the changes, it appears that Missouri would be the only state in the nation to only give scholarship money to public schools.
Keith Ross is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Missouri Baptist University. He says this would prevent students in Missouri from going to school wherever they’d like.
“In every other state there’s a choice the students have – where they go and spend those dollars. This would be unprecedented, and I don’t think that’s something that Missourians would be very proud of.”
According to Ross, over 15,500 students go to private schools in Missouri. At Missouri Baptist alone, students received over $1.5 million in ACCESS scholarships last year. With the recent banking crises, Ross says students won’t be able to borrow their way out of this predicament, and many will be forced to drop out of school.
In a press release, MBU officials said they’re taking initiative to stop Nixon from doing something that they say politicizes secondary education. They say this is just a “kick-off” protest - more are on the way.
For KSMU News, I’m Royal Yates.
