Funding higher ed

Columbia Daily Tribune

If the members of the Missouri General Assembly agree with a new approach to higher education funding offered by state Rep. Carl Bearden, more money will be given to students through scholarships and less to designated institutions.

Bearden proposes a cap on operating funding for the University of Missouri and other public institutions, allowing more scholarship money to go directly to students for use at any Missouri private or public school. This shift in control generally pleases all schools except those receiving the highest appropriations. ...

Another part of the bill would require universities to meet performance criteria set by the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education to receive operating funding increases in the future. Bearden lists several hard-to-fathom criteria deserving more discussion, but the general idea of imposing more coordinating board control is gaining traction because the board lacks authority to fulfill its titular purpose.

... Bearden's idea will take root. It spreads the money around, as politicians like to do, and scholarship money is more obviously related to lowering student costs than operating appropriations, whose direct benefit for students is harder to see.