Cuts to Higher Ed go Deeper than Suspected - Jordan Shapiro, KMOX Capitol Bureau

The budget cuts to higher education announced at Gov. Jay Nixon’s State of the State address last Tuesday are deeper than the numbers presented by the governor’s budget director and reported by the media. Although the 12.5 percent cut presented by the governor’s budget director and used in many news reports are not completely inaccurate, the actual cuts in appropriations to public universities are 15.1 percent deeper from what the Missouri General Assembly approved last year. The cuts to Missouri’s public universities are the deepest in at least two decades. The more accurate figure caught the Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, by surprised who agreed the 15.1 percent cut was the more accurate number.