D-Day Arrives for Crucial Higher Education Bills

This is a crucial day in the Legislature for Governor Matt Blunt’s proposal to spend $450-Million that might be coming the state’s way from the sale of Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority assets. House leadership has linked passage of the so-called MOHELA bill with another bill, called Access Missouri, and says the Senate must approve Access Missouri before it deals with the MOHELA bill. The MOHELA bill must be approved by the end of the day, because it’s a budget bill. Governor Blunt is confident it will make the deadline. House-Senate negotiating committees have reached compromises on both bills, but a critic of Access Missouri says the compromise version is worst than the first. That compromise requires the Access Missouri scholarships to be fully funded before colleges receive increased appropriations.