The Senate has approved its version of a bill creating the Access Missouri Scholarship Program for students attending college and university. Differences in Senate and House versions of the bill will now have to be ironed out. Both the Senate and House versions focus on scholarship dollars for higher education. But House leadership had insisted on tieing the scholarships to legislation dealing with the sale of assets of MOHELA – the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. Senate sponsor Charlie Shields of St. Joseph says his chamber’s position is that the two bills remain separate, and he’s already spoken to House sponsor Carl Bearden of St. Charles about it. Bearden appears ready to go along, provided the scholarship money is there. A Senate-House conference will meet next week to reconcile the differences. Two weeks are left in the session. The MOHELA legislation must be completed by the end of next week. The scholarship could be done by then, too.
Related web sites:
Missouri HB 1865