The MOHELA Imbroglio: The Plot Sickens

For close to a year now, Matt Blunt has been trying to push an outrage down out throats. This one directly affects you if you are the parent of a Missouri college student or if you happen to be a Missouri collegian. I happen to be both, so this issue is of great importance to me.

Here is the "Readers Digest" version: Matt Blunt wants to sell MOHELA (the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority) and use the money to build a bunch of snazzy new buildings for life sciences and technology.

I am all for enhancing our college campuses, but not in the self-defeating manner Blunt the Boy Blunder proposes. Under his plan, we would have a bunch of new facilities, but no one would be able to afford to study in them.

And to this end, board members are resigning in droves, they want no part of the plan, not even to vote against it. Three of seven members resigned yesterday, so uncomfortable they are at the prospect.

I have some ideas for funding campus development, but they involve taxes on everyone, not just students and parents, so no one in Jeff City will want to hear a word about it. Never mind that the entire state benefits from a well-educated populace, not just the students.

Yes we need new and modern facilities if we are to take our hard-earned place at the vanguard of the life sciences, but that does not mean we must acquire them by placing an undue burden on those who will be doing that life-saving research.

But Matty B just doesn't seem to be able to get his head around that notion.

W may just have some competition for "Stubborn Son-of-a-Bitch of the Year" in the form of our very own governor.