Missourinet

Your source for Missouri News and Sports

You are here: Home / Archives for Education

Study says University of Missouri System has $5.4 billion annual impact

By

An eight-month study by national consulting firm Tripp Umbach illustrates the UM System has a $5.4 billion annual financial influence on the state. The 2017 fiscal year analysis factors in things like payroll and benefits, taxes paid to local and state governments, student spending, community benefits and visitors expenses.

Image courtesy of University of Missouri

“Given that our annual appropriations from the state are approximately $400 million each year, this means that taxpayers are receiving a return on their investment of 13.5 to 1, an impressive number,” says Mark McIntosh, UM System vice president of Research and Economic Development. “A vast number of our graduates are staying in Missouri and putting their education to the test in our workforce while our faculty across the four campuses are conducting research that addresses grand challenges facing our state and nation. This significant combination of workforce development and innovative discoveries in our labs is impacting thousands of Missourians every day.”

According to Paul Umbach, President and CEO of Tripp Umbach, he says the University of Missouri’s economic reach is far and wide throughout the state. He says UM fares better than several other university systems in its financial impact, including the Universities of Iowa, Connecticut and Pittsburg.

“One thing that’s different about Missouri than other states, is that there are large economic engines in the two principal cities and also in Rolla. And, Extension has spending in every one of the counties. There’s a lot of universities that pretty much have all their eggs in one place, but the University of Missouri System actually has spending in the other markets around the state,” Umbach says. “I feel like that is part of the magic of this system. Missouri is like a country – it’s the most urban place and the most rural place all in one place. From an economist perspective, that generates even more economic development when you have such diversity.”

Highlights of the study include:

  • More than $244 million in state and local revenue taxes collected because of the university by way of taxes on sales, food, gas, lodging, etc.
  • More than 61,000 people have jobs either directly or indirectly because of the system.
  • Of the four campuses, Mizzou has the greatest impact by far: $3.9 billion, $46,855 jobs, $117.4 million generated in state and local tax revenue.

The $50,000 study did not review the economic impact of MU’s athletics department. A previous study completed by a team of MBA faculty and students found that MU athletics contributed approximately $294 million to the local and state economies.

The research comes as the Missouri Legislature considers the level of funding for the state’s colleges and universities.

To view the report, click here.

Copyright © 2018 · Missourinet

Who’s the mystery man in famous Capitol mural? Missouri historian thinks he knows

By

The walls of the Missouri Capitol’s House Lounge showcase a massive 1936 mural with a longtime mystery – the identity of an African-American man attending a state political gathering. There are several unidentified figures in Thomas Hart Benton’s A Social History of the State of Missouri. But, the man leaning up against a tree in a white Stetson hat caught the attention of retired Missouri S & T professor and art historian James Bogan.

James Bogan

“It aggravated the hell out of me when we couldn’t come up with it (identity). Most of the characters in the mural are anonymous, which Benton did pretty much on purpose,” Bogan tells Missourinet.

He’s been wearing his detective hat intermittently since 1988 trying to solve the cold case about the mystery man portrayed in the colorful work of art that captures Missouri’s rich social history. According to Bogan, Democratic establishment was leading the political function touting Missouri House Speaker Champ Clark, who ran for the Presidential Democratic nomination in 1912. The political figures on stage were Benton’s father, U.S. Rep. Maecenas Eason Benton, then-Jefferson City Mayor Means Ray and then-Missouri Governor Guy Parks.

For years, Bogan has been sifting through newspaper files, microfilm and asking around about the identity of the lone African-American man pictured at the gathering. He contacted a former St. Louis newspaper reporter who knows the history of the local political scene. Bogan tells Missourinet he’s convinced the figure is that of Jordan Chambers – a well-known businessman and political figure in St. Louis in the 1930s.

from Thomas Hart Benton’s mural A Social History of the State of Missouri

“I just asked him, who was the best vote getter-outer in St. Louis in the middle 30s. He sent me an obituary of Jordan Chambers,” Bogan says. “The guy’s wearing a white Stetson hat. The Post-Dispatch called him the ‘Negro Mayor of St. Louis’ at the time. There’s just nobody else who fits the profile.”

Chambers, who invested in a funeral home and nightclub in St. Louis, was the first black Democratic Committeeman in the city. He is known for helping Missouri’s own Harry Truman capture black votes in St. Louis in a tight U.S. Senate Democratic primary in 1940.

“He (Truman) won by 4,000 votes out of a half-million cast,” Bogan says.

Truman went on to win the general election by defeating incumbent Republican Roscoe Patterson by nearly 20 points. While in the U.S. Senate, Truman offered Chambers the job as Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C., but Chambers chose to stay put in St. Louis.

from Thomas Hart Benton’s mural A Social History of the State of Missouri

Bogan describes the artwork as “Cinerama before there was Cinerama” because Benton painted a moving picture with figures leaping off the walls. It puts the state’s social history on display in different scenes that intertwine with the people who built Missouri, slavery, mythology, Huckleberry Finn and Jesse James.

“I say it’s the greatest painted walls this side of the Sistine Chapel and north of Mexico City. I have had a bar room fight over that in my life and I’m still ready to swing a punch in favor of that conclusion,” Bogan says.

In 1935, the Missouri Legislature commissioned Benton, who grew up in southwest Missouri’s Neosho, for the $16,000 job. The mural that took him two years to complete is considered by many to be Benton’s best work.

Copyright © 2018 · Missourinet

Southwest Missouri college to honor Beetle Bailey cartoonist

By

A popular comic strip has its roots in southwest Missouri’s Neosho. Cindy Brown with Crowder College says the creator of Beetle Bailey, Mort Walker, has a connection to Crowder College, which sits on the former Camp Crowder Army base.

Photos courtesy of Beetle Bailey.com

“Mort Walker was actually stationed at Camp Crowder. Camp Swampy was actually named for Camp Crowder. Beetle Bailey evolved from Mort’s time in the Army here,” Brown says.

Walker, who died in January, references the Camp Swampy Army base in the comic strip.

Crowder College will mark the 76th anniversary of Camp Crowder during a free event on Thursday. Brown tells Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin there will be speakers and displays about Walker.

“We found that when we have historical things like this, it’s neat to share them with students in kind of an informal gathering because they get to go around and ask questions and find out thing that they didn’t realize are part of the history of the college,” says Brown.

The event begins at noon at Wright Conference Center at Crowder’s Neosho campus.

Joe Lancello of Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin contributed to this story.

Man who found Titanic wreckage to speak at southwest Missouri college tonight

By

Robert Ballard is an oceanographer who found the Titanic. (Photo by Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Exactly 106 years from the day the Titanic set sail, the man who found its wreckage will visit Missouri State University. The Sprinfield News Leader reports Robert Ballard will serve as the Public Affairs Conference opening keynote speaker at 7:30 tonight at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

Ballard has tracked down many significant shipwrecks. The list includes the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109. He discovered the Titanic in 1985.

Ballard – who’s appeared in several National Geographic TV programs – has a doctorate of philosophy in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Rhode Island.

Tonight’s event in Springfield is free and open to the public.

Blunt says 51 percent of rural Missourians lack access to broadband

By

Senator Roy Blunt (R) emphasized agriculture, broadband and jobs during his Wednesday address to the Missouri House in Jefferson City.

Senator Roy Blunt addresses the Missouri House on April 4, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Missouri’s junior senator says world food demand will double between now and 2050.

“Nobody is better at this than we are as a country, and frankly nobody in the country is better positioned than we are to take advantage of that unbelievable opening,” Blunt says.

Senator Blunt has described the Mississippi River valley as the biggest piece of contiguous agricultural ground in the world, with the “best farmers and ranchers in the world.”

Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, says the Show-Me State currently ranks 40th in the nation in access to broadband service.

Blunt tells the Missouri House that broadband was a key topic of discussion at an ag forum he participated in last week in Springfield, with Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) Director Chris Chinn and Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst.

“We had 45 minutes of questions and answers, not a single question was about the next (federal) farm bill,” says Blunt. “Every single question was about rural broadband, transportation and regulation.”

Blunt says 51 percent of rural Missourians don’t have access to broadband.

Bagpipe players from the Boone County Fire Protection District enter the Missouri House chamber on April 4, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

“We need to do something about that. Broadband is going to be just as important over the next 50 years as the telephone was over the last 50 years,” Blunt says.

The Missouri House has voted 149-1 to approve legislation from State Rep. Curtis Trent, R-Springfield, that would enable the state’s rural electric cooperatives to make unused capacity available for residential and commercial purposes.

Trent’s bill declares that the expansion of broadband service is in the best interests of Missourians.

Trent says rural broadband is critical for education and health care.

The Missouri Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee has approved the bill, which is now waiting for debate on the Senate floor.

This is the eighth straight year that Senator Blunt has addressed the House. He was elected to the Senate in 2010, and was re-elected in 2016.

Meantime, Missouri House members on both sides of the aisle paused for a moment of silence Wednesday, which was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Blunt describes Dr. King as “one of the most influential voices of the 20th century.” Blunt tells the House it’s a good time to think about the importance and value of life.

“And the difference that one committed life can make, and I think with the Speaker’s indulgence I’m going to suggest we just take a few moments here of silence and think about all those issues particularly about Dr. King,” says Blunt.

Blunt says Dr. King’s contributions to the civil rights movement inspired generations of Americans to carry on his legacy.

Sports betting in Missouri? A House member wants to legalize it.

By

You might not have to travel to Vegas to place your sports bets. Some Missouri lawmakers want to make sports gambling legal in the state. Under one proposal heard this week by a House committee, casinos would have to pay a sports gambling tax if Rep. Dean Plocher’s bill passes.

Rep. Dean Plocher (Photo courtesy of his Twitter page)

The House Budget Committee is considering the idea, along with whether to place a 12% tax from sports gambling and require casinos to pay a 1% integrity fee that goes to the sports leagues. The tax revenue would go toward education.

“(Gambling) stays in Missouri,” Plocher said. “It would be regulated by Missouri. The algorithms that are used would be able to be monitored by Missourians so there’s a level of security here that I believe is a must rather than send money overseas and let foreign countries make the money.”

Representatives from Major League Baseball, the Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Cardinals and the National Basketball Association are in favor of the bill and offered letters to the committee.

Members of a House committee discussed how this would increase revenue for the sports teams and the casinos alike by getting more people involved and invested in teams.

A witness from the Missouri Gaming Association testified against the bill.

“The gentleman from Major Leave Baseball mentioned the margins of the casinos and that this will be a cash boom for the casino industry,” the representative from the Missouri Gaming Association said. “We take a little bit of a different approach. We don’t see this as a cash boom for the industry. We see this as another amenity we can offer to patrons who come visit our facilities.”

The committee has not yet voted on the measure.

By Missourinet contributor Waverly Colville

Missouri House could debate Haahr tax reform package this week

By

Legislation that would reduce Missouri’s highest personal income tax rate from 5.9 to five percent could be debated by the House in Jefferson City this week.

Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr presides over the chamber on March 27, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, spoke to the Capitol Press Corps about Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr’s tax reform bill, right before the Easter break.

“Our intent all along has been to work with our colleagues on the other end of the building (the Missouri Senate), as well as our colleagues here in the House to come up with a broad-based tax reform bill that we could get all the way through the process,” Richardson says.

Haahr’s 429-page legislation also reduces Missouri’s corporate income tax from 6.25 to five percent.

Haahr, R-Springfield, notes his bill is also aimed at providing funding for Missouri’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

It would index vehicle user fees to the cost of inflation.

Haahr testified before the Missouri House Ways and Means Committee in March, saying that change would generate about $174 million annually for the state’s road fund.

“Ours would provide about $2 billion over the next ten years for roads plus an additional $700 million that would go to counties,” Haahr told Capitol reporters before the Easter break. “So that’s kind of the number we’ve been operating off.”

Haahr says the state’s current vehicle license and registration fees haven’t changed in more than 30 years.

Missouri House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Reiboldt, R-Neosho, has a competing version, which would place a ten-cent gasoline tax increase before voters in November.

Meantime, a top Missouri House Democrat says neighboring Kansas “fell apart” because of massive tax cuts.

House Assistant Minority Leader Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis, has concerns with GOP tax cut plans in both the Missouri House and Senate.

“We’ve already talked about the fact that our public education is in trouble, our roads and bridges are in trouble, our seniors are in trouble, what more trouble do we need to put Missourians in just to win elections,” Mitten says.

Haahr says his bill would transform Missouri’s tax system to the most competitive in the nation.

This is a short week in the Missouri House, because of the Easter break. Lawmakers were off on Monday and didn’t return to Jefferson City until Tuesday afternoon.

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (R) is scheduled to address the House on Wednesday morning.

Southwest Missouri school district unveils new alert system following mass shootings around the country

By

A southwest Missouri school district has updated its operations for updating parents and staff.

Springfield Public Schools rolled out its new text alert system this week.  The move comes at a time when school safety is a concern after last month’s mass shooting that left 17 students dead at a Florida high school.

To this point, Springfield schools have relayed important messages through social media and automated phone calls.  The new texting approach sends alerts directly to inboxes.

Parents with students in the district were scheduled to receive their first message this week.  Julie Dipper, the president of a Springfield elementary school PTA, says she was pleasantly surprised to find out about the new arrangement.

“Well, I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it,” Dipper says. “This is going to be a good tool to use for the district to let parents know when something is going on that we need to be aware of.”

Emergencies, school cancellations, and weather impacts are among some of the things that will be sent out to parents. Dipper says she’s happy the district’s utilizing text messaging, which is a more direct way of contacting parents than social media.

“School safety is a hot topic right now. For parents, it’s that safety concern.”

Springfield Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Stephen Hall says the text alert system offers a good opportunity for parents to make sure they have current information on file.

“We do know sometimes that changes over the course of a school year,” said Hall. When parents register their student at the beginning of the school year, that may be quite different over the course of a school year.”

Hall says the new service is an option parents can opt-out of if they choose.

“There is nothing that you have to do to opt-in,” Hall says. “If they would like to opt-out of receiving those messages in the future, they just need to reply with that message, STOP.”

Some other districts have already implemented these types of alerts, but it is something that Dipper, the local PTA leader, is glad to see as a parent.

“Yeah we probably are a little bit overdue,” she says. “I’m just thankful that we are actually doing it now. Anything the district can do to reinforce the message that communicating to parents is a high priority for them.”

The text messaging service in Springfield is available for parents and staff only, but not for students.

Hall says that they have other ways of quickly communicating with students in the building.

Missourinet media partner KOLR-TV provided the content for this story

Missouri House approves $28 billion budget; lengthy debate about Bourbon virus

By

The Missouri House voted Thursday afternoon in Jefferson City to approve a $28.085 billion state operating budget that includes record funding for K-12 education.

House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, praises the 35-member House Budget Committee.

“I think it’s a remarkable budget and I think they did a remarkably good job,” Richardson tells the Capitol Press Corps. “It has record funding for education, restores the cuts to higher education and has done so in a fiscally responsible manner.”

Missouri House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick speaks on the House floor on March 29, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, says protecting those with developmental disabilities is one of his top priorities.

“Large increases, almost $60 million in the Department of Mental Health to keep our commitment to taking care of that population as well as working on restoring provider rate cuts,” says Fitzpatrick.

State Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Kirkwood, spoke Thursday on the House floor, urging her colleagues to invest in Missouri, to invest in people and to help seniors and the disabled. Lavender says Missouri is losing population and that the House must protect vulnerable citizens.

Chairman Fitzpatrick says lawmakers are working within the confines of state revenue and the consensus revenue estimate. He says the Legislature did the best they could, with what they had to work with.

He thanks all members of his committee, Republican and Democrat, including Vice Chairman State Rep. Justin Alferman, R-Hermann, and ranking Democrat State Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia.

Much of Thursday’s debate was focused on the controversy involving a 2017 death in eastern Missouri involving the Bourbon virus.

The House voted 110-41 Thursday to cut the state Department of Health and Senior Services’ (DHSS) budget by about $1 million and ten employees.

Meramec State Park Assistant Superintendent Tamela Wilson reportedly died from complications of the Bourbon virus in 2017, after being bitten by a tick.

State Rep. Justin Alferman speaks on the Missouri House floor on March 29, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

During an emotional House floor speech on Thursday, Representative Alferman blasted DHSS for not providing information on how many Missourians have tested positive for the virus.

“Tamela Wilson in our state passed away from Bourbon virus and our Department of Health in this state will not give us any answers on that,” Alferman tells House colleagues.

The E-Missourian newspaper in Franklin County says Meramec State Park employees have been tested for signs of the virus.

The newspaper reported in February that they submitted a Sunshine request asking DHSS for results of the employee blood tests, but were told the records are protected under state law involving medical and health records.

Citing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws, the Department also won’t tell the Legislature how many people in Missouri have tested positive for the virus.

There is a disagreement between the Missouri House and the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair on whether the state health lab will be moved from DHSS to the Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The House has voted for the move, because DHSS will not provide information on how many Missourians have tested positive for the virus.

State Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“We are not going to move the public health lab to Public Safety,” Brown tells Capitol reporters. “They’re not prepared for that, they’re not set up for it so that is not going to happen.”

Chairman Fitzpatrick tells the Capitol Press Corps he hopes Brown is right.

Fitzpatrick emphasizes that DHSS must cooperate with lawmakers, adding that his goal is not to hurt the Health Department.

Missouri lawmakers have left Jefferson City for the Easter break and won’t return to the Capitol until Tuesday afternoon.

The state Constitution requires Missouri lawmakers to approve a balanced budget by the first week in May.

Two students create rare achievement for mid-Missouri town by getting perfect ACT scores

By

Two mid-Missouri students get perfect ACT scores

The odds of getting a perfect ACT score are low. Mark Ficken, superintendent of Boonville R-1 school district in mid-Missouri, says two of his high school students have beat the odds. Senior Kyle Chrisman and junior Tyler Schuster from the town of roughly 8,300 have received the perfect college entrance exam score of 36.

“Less that .02% of all students in the United States get a perfect score and we have two of them,” he tells Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly. “That’s how awesome we are at Boonville.”

The school board recognized Chrisman’s accomplishment last week. Schuster will be honored at the next board meeting.