Scholarship issue splits campuses in Missouri. Bill would give more to public college students.

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Scholarship issue splits campuses
Bill would give more to public college students.

By TERRY GANEY
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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JEFFERSON CITY — Public and private college students in Missouri are battling over scholarship money that was divided up two years ago in the deal to finance public college construction projects with the sale of student loan assets.

Because much of the student loan money had been raised from private school students, an agreement was made in which students attending private colleges could get a maximum needs-based scholarship of $4,600 compared with $2,150 for public college students.

Now some students of the University of Missouri want to unravel that deal so that all students — whether they go to a public college in Missouri or a private one — get the same maximum amount: $2,850 per year.

“We support equality and fairness when distributing aid to our neediest students,” said Ally Walker, University of Missouri-Kansas City student from Ashland. Walker is the legislative director of the Associated Students of the University of Missouri.

Students from ASUM gathered in the Capitol yesterday to press their case. But students from Westminster College in Fulton were there as well.

“A student like me, I wouldn’t be able to go to a college like Westminster if this is passed,” said Lindsay LaBrier, a sophomore from New Florence majoring in political science. LaBrier said she is a needs-based student who receives the full amount of the scholarship, more than $4,000.

Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has proposed making the Access Missouri scholarship grant for needy students the same no matter where the student goes to college. Two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Kurt Schaefer of Columbia and Rep. Gayle Kingery of Poplar Bluff, have introduced bills to make the grants equal at $2,850 per student. “These bills are aimed at making a public policy so that they could be distributed equitably,” Schaefer said.

Since 1972, students attending private colleges in Missouri have received larger scholarship grants than public school students. The grants were based on a percentage of the cost of education, and private schools charged more than public schools.

The system was adjusted two years ago with legislation in which student loan assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority would be sold to pay for construction projects on public college campuses. At the same time, more money was poured into a new scholarship program, Access Missouri.

About $95 million is going into the program this year, providing scholarships for about 12,000 students attending private colleges in Missouri and 21,000 going to public schools. The private school students get about 52 percent of the funds available.

Kingery said he doesn’t want to penalize private school students.

“Personally, I would like to see the publics at the level of the privates,” Kingery said. He believes it would take between $150 million and $160 million to bring the public school students up to the $4,600 maximum. He would like to develop a formula for gradually increasing the maximum grants for public college students over a four-year period. “It does cost more to go to a private school,” Kingery said. “We have excellent schools, both public and private. Competition helps you achieve excellence. We don’t want to impact the private schools at all.”

Kingery doubts anything will happen soon.

“People in power believe we should honor those deals until they sunset or are no longer valid,” Kingery added. Proponents of making the scholarship grants the same say the deal is no longer valid because the plan to sell the student loans fizzled and many of the construction projects have not been funded. At the same time, state funding for public colleges and universities remains at levels last witnessed in 2001. “There were some things that were supposed to have happened that have not happened,” Kingery added. “That’s why we feel it’s appropriate to move forward with this.”

Lacey McFadden, a business and marketing student at Westminster, said the grants going to private school students cover about 22 percent of a college education compared to 25 percent for a public school student.

McFadden is the oldest of three children from a single-parent household in Salisbury. She uses the Access Missouri grant and a federal Pell grant to pay for college. “The way it is set up now, there is already a discrepancy,” said McFadden, who is a junior. “This would increase that gap by that much more.”

Reach Terry Ganey at 573-815-1708 or e-mail tganey@columbiatribune.com.