Education

The Blunt/Kinder axis decided to use The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) as a political tool rather than allow the organization to serve the public interest by opening the doors of higher education.  Now, MOHELA will have to cut several critical student benefit programs.  The damage to MOHELA was not even the result of a tax cut or spending cut but the result of gross mismanagement of the program by the Blunt/Kinder axis.  Higher Education in Missouri suffers for  Story Continued »

Public education opponent Rex Sinquefield is facing an Ethics Commission investigation over his coordinated use of 100 cookie cutter PACs to circumvent state campaign contribution limits.

Last week he got some bad new from Ohio.  

The political machine that has attempted to dominate Butler County Politics faced a major setback April 8^th.  John Stanard and his associate Tom Turner were both defeated in a landslide.

Voters rejected the incumbents and embraced change by nearly 2 to 1 in the Three Rivers Community College Board of Trustees election.

Thanks in part to the sale of the loan agency's assets, private investors who purchased securities offered by MOHELA are seeing any profit shrivel up and blow away.

The MOHELA asset sale was, of course, the crowning legislative achievement of the Matt Blunt administration.  The sale was and is supported by establishment GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof.  

In the campaign for the board of Three Rivers Community College, as in most campaigns, the incumbent points at successes and tries to diminish the importance of his or her failures.  For Stanard and Turner, success means the college has not yet had to shut down.  Sure, things are worse than they’ve ever been.  Nine superintendents, the head of a vocational technical program, Southeast Missouri Hospital, and Southeast Missouri State University do not want Three Rivers Community College  Story Continued »

John Stanard now appears to think promoting education means undermining athletics.  Stanard's focused on the athletic program is reminiscent of Captain Ahab’s obsession with capturing Moby Dick.  While pursuing the great white whale with a single minded focus Captain Ahab never saw how he was bringing down his own ship and all of those around him.

John Stanard the desperate incumbent board member at Three Rivers Community College has decided to use the campaign tag line Education First.  Since Stanard does not have a history of putting education first the question is, where did Stanard, or the  Story Continued »

John Stanard, an incumbent, is running for reelection to the Three Rivers Community College Board of Trustees.  In the past few years the college has been rocked with several scandals.  Stanard says he wants to "put education first" but cannot answer a few simple questions about how he is putting education first, other than giving the College an education in corruption and cronyism.

How is Stanard’s release of private information from employee personnel files putting education first?

In Southeast Missouri, Jetton got into a dispute with Southeast Missouri State University over the construction of the River Front Campus.  Jetton ended up losing but not without wasting taxpayer money.  The River Front Campus is a huge blessing to Southeast Missouri.

The incumbent members of the Three Rivers Community College are boasting they spend $1,000,000 dollars of the college's $17,000,000 budget (5.9%) on athletics. 

While this figure may be disputed, the incumbents who are running the college into the ground seem to suddenly have amnesia when asked, "How much does Three Rivers Community College spend on attorneys' and legal fees?"

When asked for copies of the budget under the sunshine law the board members suddenly seem to get angry.

A story posted by Steve Walsh to the MissouriNet website yesterday evening does a tremendous disservice to readers.  Walsh reports on a "study" by the Show-Me Institute that --surprise, surprise!-- shows educational tuition tax-credits (or vouchers) would supposedly benefit the state:

The Show-Me Institute, a St. Louis-based research and educational institute, has released a study on the fiscal effects of a tuition tax credit program in Missouri. The study finds such a program would benefit the state by providing low-income families with additional education choices.

But criminally, Walsh fails to mention that the Show-Me Institute's primary funder and President is Rex Sinquefield, who has spent much of the last three years throwing large amounts of money at legislators who promise to support tuition tax-credit (or voucher) legislation. 

Are America's kids college bound? We know that every high school graduate will not go on to college. But, every high school graduate should be prepared to do so.

More than two and a half decades have past since I graduate from high school. I attended the St. Louis Public schools, in St. Louis Missouri. I have some good memories about high school and fond memories of many of my teachers.

Are you familiar with the idea that there's only one holiday fruitcake in the world?  One that keeps being re-gifted with a new bow for every recipient?  And that eventually, the fruitcake that you received from Aunt Ethel and then gave to Cousin Jim will eventually find its way back to you?  Well, the theory of the lone fruitcake is on display right here in Missouri, where legislators are surely forcing a smile and choking out a half-hearted but unconvincing, "Uh, thanks."

Months after the rare completion of one of Matt Blunt's agenda items --the sale of student loan agency MOHELA's assets-- the governor's plan has left the agency teetering on the edge of financial non-viability.  MOHELA has reportedly lost money in each of the last two months and is expected to post a loss again this month.

Blunt and the GOP-controlled legislature had moved forward with the sale even after an independent analysis sought by MOHELA had predicted potential financial pitfalls.  Many pointed at the time to pending federal legislation, which has since passed, that made the MOHELA asset sale look less attractive.  The head of Liscarnan Solutions, which performed the analysis, was quoted saying of that legislation:

"This may call into question several of our conclusions related to both MOHELA’s ability to meet the funding requirements of the cooperation agreement and MOHELA’s long-term viability."

Despite the warnings, Blunt went ahead and forced his sale through the legislature despite grave concerns about how it might affect the agency's continuing survival.  It now appears as though many of those fears have been realized.

Three Rivers Community College is attempting to open a facility in Cape Girardeau County.  This is part of their ongoing war with Southeast Missouri State University and is NOT about educating people.  Mineral Area College has an excellent working relationship with Southeast Missouri State University and is the logical choice to extend Community College services to the region.