Blunt: Keep education top priority

In what may be his final column as governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt addresses education and the importance of keeping it as the state's number one priority:

Two weeks ago I warned in an op-ed that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star have yet to print, that we cannot go back to the old shell game of giving money to schools with one hand and taking it out with the other. Unfortunately, it appears my concerns were warranted.

In November, Missourians voted to expand gambling by passing Proposition A because they wanted more money to go to education. Steps must be taken to ensure Missouri schools receive every penny in additional funding this initiative has promised. Taxpayers who were reluctant to expand gambling should be wary and watch for stagnant, reduced or only slightly increased general revenue funding. The gaming money should be over and above the scheduled general revenue formula payment. It should not offset it.

Serving as governor has strengthened my understanding of the competitive nature of the national and global economy. Communities, states and nations that invest in education and workforce development will have a higher standard of living than those that do not. I do not intend to comment on every topic or opine on every idea of the next administration, but education is of vital importance to me and to our state and I feel compelled to offer some thoughts as I leave office.

Before I became governor, state government actually cut and withheld money from schools and universities so that it could continue with out of control spending in other areas. However, the failure to control rapidly escalating social welfare spending meant that the state's budget problem only became worse.

The budget I inherited in January 2005 was broke and broken with a $1.1 billion deficit. Overcoming this deficit was daunting on its own. Even more challenging was simultaneously realigning Missouri's budget priorities to put education back on top. In my most challenging budget year as governor I recommended an increase in education funding and set a new priority: education would come first in making budget decisions.

Working in partnership with the General Assembly we kept this promise. We turned a $1.1 billion deficit into consecutive surpluses and increased funding for education at all levels. My budgets increased K-12 funding by 17.2 percent or $440 million. We increased funding for colleges, universities and students by $166.5 million, or 19.3 percent. In fact, the more than $1 billion higher education budget I signed this year is the highest in state history and we went beyond this core funding increase by enacting the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative which is providing an additional $335 million for state-of-the-art learning centers for our students. We also nearly quadrupled scholarship funding for students.

In my four years as governor we provided $1.2 billion new dollars for education at all levels. This is the largest increase in education funding without a tax increase in state history. The Fiscal Year 2010 budget will be challenging because of the national recession. It is my hope that in this challenging budget climate that education will not be cut to feed bigger government programs. My administration ended the education cuts and withholdings of the past.

We should not return to the old way. The United States cannot continue to lead the global economy unless we invest in education. Education must come first in the state's budget priorities. Education is the best foundation for a future of growth, opportunity and success for Missourians and our state. We must protect and increase education funding, not cut it.