Education

Residents of Columbia will be voting on ballot measures that will fund future projects for Columbia Public Schools. The measures would help fund projects that will begin in 2014, and some residents feel that it’s the right time to look towards the future of Columbia Public Schools. 

The House Budget Committee approved a plan Wednesday to reverse Governor Nixon’s proposed cuts to the Higher Education Budget. 

Last night, the Columbia City Council approved a zoning request for new student housing, which will be put in on Locust Street between Hitt and Waugh Streets. But the decision has many parents and school board officials from Lee Elementary School expressing their concerns about the future increase in traffic. 

Students at the University of Missouri are ramping up their efforts to change the status of the student representative on the system's Board of Curators. Bill Raack reports that legislation to give the student curator voting rights is working its way through the Missouri General Assembly.

The former chairman and CEO of MTV International will become a member of the Westminster College Board of Trustees.

State education officials could step in quicker to assist failing Missouri school districts under legislation backed in the House.

Districts that lose state accreditation currently are given two years to improve before the state officials can intervene. The new legislation removes the waiting period.

When the state Board of Education revokes a district's accreditation, it then would decide whether to set conditions for the local school board to remain in place or determine when an alternative governing system for those schools would take effect.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is releasing more than $5 million that had been withheld from public education because of budget concerns.