In Kansas City, Gov. Jay Nixon promotes Missouri scholarship boost

Missouri should spend more on state scholarships and other aid for higher education at public schools, Gov. Jay Nixon said Wednesday in Kansas City.

“Our goal is to be able to provide an avenue where students can get a four-year degree without any debt,” Nixon told a group of students who qualified for a state program that pays their tuition and academic fees to attend community college. Nixon spoke at the Penn Valley campus of Metropolitan Community College.

Nixon’s proposed 2017 budget includes an increase of $7 million for the A+, Access Missouri and Bright Flight state scholarship programs.

Nixon’s budget also includes an increase of $55.7 million in performance funding for the state’s public colleges and universities, including $1.62 million for Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, in exchange for a tuition freeze.

“A+ has really helped me because I’m going to have an associate degree without any debt,” said Jessyka Scott, who graduated from Park Hill South High School and intends to continue after community college to get a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering.

Chase Tyne, who graduated from Kearney High School and is now learning to be a lineman, said the A+ scholarship also helped him.

“Without it I probably wouldn’t have ended up going to any college,” he said.

Requirements for the A+ scholarship include a grade point average of 2.5 or higher, a 95 percent attendance record, 50 hours of unpaid tutoring or mentoring, and a score of proficient or better in Algebra I.

Nixon said too many people are scared of making a “debt bet.”

“They can’t see it’s in their economic interest to go get more education because cost is so high and debt is so real,” he said. “You’ve got a whole bunch of folks who are not necessarily unemployed but dramatically underemployed. That’s a real problem in the economy when you have people who can do a lot more and get a lot more economic power and they’re scared to make that economic choice.”

In a news conference after the student discussion, Nixon was asked about efforts in the Missouri General Assembly to do away with the earnings tax in Kansas City and St. Louis. Kansas City voters will be asked to renew the earnings tax on April 5.

“People in Jefferson City in the legislature should be spending their time seeing what they can do to help cities, not what they can do to waste the time of mayors and county executives that have to drive down to Jeff City to keep what they’ve got,” Nixon said.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "In Kansas City, Gov. Jay Nixon promotes Missouri scholarship boost."