PLANS FOR VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL FACILITIES ARE PROGRESSING

Two vocational-technical education projects in Cape Girardeau are progressing. Both Southeast Missouri State University and the Cape Girardeau School District hope to build centers by 1999 designed to help students tap into technology and vocational training.

In a world of advancing technology, there is certainly a need for both projects. Money -- and lots of it -- will determine whether these projects get from the drawing board to construction. Securing state funding is key for both.

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education received some welcome news last week when it learned the State Board of Education asked the governor to include half the cost of the proposed $6.5 million vocational-technical school in its budget. The remainder of the funding would be generated from a tax increase that district patrons will consider in April.

The university's new technology center is dependent on state funding as well. Officials hope that Gov. Mel Carnahan will include the $5.5 million technology center project in his budget. Southeast has a friend in its corner in Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents and a personal friend of the governor. Dickerson played a key role in securing funding for the new business building and has lobbied for the new technology center as well.

At one point, there was discussion of building these two vocational-technical centers side by side. But the university has since decided its 50,000-plus-square-foot center needs to be on campus. That makes sense. Such a building should be easily accessible to university students.

No site has yet been picked for the school district's vocational-technical school, although the school board says it will announce a site before the April bond election. There has been some talk of putting the vo-tech facility and a planned new high school next to each other. If the buildings are to be adjacent, they should be centrally located. On the other hand, a central location for the new high school and a separate site near Interstate 55 for the vo-tech building also makes sense.

It is good to see that the university and school district are already working hand-in-hand to ensure both programs complement each other. With these two cooperative projects, Cape Girardeau could become a model site for technical education in Missouri.