Missouri Senate wants to restore funding cut for some colleges and universities

Missouri's colleges and universities would receive the same amount of state money they did the prior year under a Senate committee's proposed budget.

That decision, made Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, gets rid of the new funding model that the House had in its budget, which was largely based on enrollment.

The budget must still go through the Senate and back to the House, where the chamber is likely to reject the Senate versions and request a conference committee. In the conference committee, both the House and Senate will work on compromise budget bills.

Speaking to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Chairman Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, said the Senate decided to go back to Gov. Mike Kehoe's recommendation on funding for both community colleges and four-year universities.

"It's not completely unanimous, but it's virtually unanimous at this point with people who have communicated with me in the Senate about this," Black said.

House Budget Chairman Dirk Deaton said the change by the House came after years of no changes to how higher education is funded by the state.

However, critics of the plan say it would create winners and losers among the state's higher education institutions.

Sen. Brian Williams, D-University City, said the state should be making sure that higher education institutions have adequate funding.

"I know we have a challenging budget right now, but our workforce and educating the workforce of tomorrow is more important," Williams said.

Some universities like the University of Missouri system would have seen a sharp increase in funding from the House model, up to $20 million more.

Meanwhile, other schools like Truman State University and Harris-Stowe State University would have experienced significant cuts.

Truman State could have lost around $27 million in funding, while Harris-Stowe State University had around $5 million in cuts under the House version.

Sen. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, said she was just as baffled by the House plan as higher education institutions were.

"They were all confused, and you were basically getting ready to put schools out of business in 24 months or less," Washington said.

Washington said that because the universities are receiving the same amount of funding as they did last fiscal year, they are more or less facing a budget cut.

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