Although the largest cuts proposed for higher education are a result of a drastic decrease in the general revenue fund, smaller state funds could also allocate less money toward public colleges and universities in Missouri.
The smaller funds, the Guaranty Agency Operating Fund and Clark and Lewis Discovery Fund, are projected to allocate less money toward higher education.
The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority donated $30 million last year to support scholarships through the Clark and Lewis Discovery Fund. They are no longer able to donate that amount and could only supply $5 million for this year, said Paul Wagner, deputy commissioner for the Department for Higher Education.
The Guaranty Agency Operating Fund is funded through a student loan program in the Department for Higher Education for financial aid activity, Wagner said. The fund is projected to decrease by more than $4 million for 2013.
“Universities will individually have to decide how they are going to survive,” said Rep. Mike Thomson, R-Maryville, chairman of the Higher Education Committee. “There will likely be raises in student tuition and that is putting it on the backs of students.”
The more serious proposed cuts in funding, more than $90 million, would come from the general revenue fund, which is supported by Missouri taxpayers. Federal funding would also be reduced by about $1 million.
Scholarship funding, such as the AP Incentive Grant Fund and the Access Missouri financial assistance program, did not see proposed slashes in funding.
The AP Incentive Grant Fund will still provide $100,000 in scholarships from MOHELA for students who score well on Advanced Placement tests in mathematics and science. The Access Missouri financial assistance program funding is proposed to be the same amount as last year, but instead of the state and MOHELA both contributing $30 million each to the fund, the state will fund the program almost entirely in FY2013, with only $5 million from MOHELA.
“The budget is a really mixed bag, but it is certainly a pleasant surprise to plug the hole in Access Missouri funding,” Wagner said. “We were concerned of a drastic drop in this program that services students with financial need.”
Higher education could see the highest single cut in funding in the history of Missouri if Nixon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 is passed by the state legislature in April, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said.
“We have had a 12 percent cut over the past two years and could see a 25 percent cut over a three year period, which would be extremely disappointing,” Thomson said. “It would change things in Missouri higher education and I don’t know if all institutions could handle it.”
Schaefer, a member of the joint Committee on Education, said the Senate and House will likely find money to put back into higher education, but the question will be whether Nixon keeps it there.
“The important thing to keep in mind is that there was an 8 percent cut in higher education this year and we brought it down to 5 percent,” Schaefer said. “But Nixon brought it back up to 8 percent again. The cuts he (Nixon) has made to higher education have been disproportional to any other government agency.”
MU spokesman Christian Basi said in a previous Maneater article it was too early to gage how MU would react to the proposed cuts.
“The budget process is a long one and we are working with state legislators as the process continues,” Basi said.
Rep. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, vice-chairman of the Higher Education Committee, said legislators are collaborating to find money to reduce the cuts.
“We have a lot of hard work ahead to find ways to do this,” Wallingford said. “Hopefully we will get bills going, but bills without money doesn’t work well. We have to find innovative ways to helps schools, because they are the key to our foundation.”
