On Wednesday, March 21, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt visited MCC - Penn Valley, one of the stops on his tour to promote his new scholarship plan. Blunt's proposal includes combining the Missouri College Guarantee and the Charles Gallagher Student Financial Assistance Program into one scholarship fund, called Access Missouri. The plan also calls for the privatization of MOHELA, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

Currently, the two scholarship programs offered by the state are allocated 27.5 million dollars annually. Access Missouri would increase that to around 72.5 million dollars. The program is expected to double the number of Missouri students receiving state aid, from 17,000 to more than 35,000. The new funding would add over five hundred scholarships to Penn Valley alone.

Gov. Blunt at PV

"We're going to make this a less complicated program," said Blunt from the second floor financial aid office. "The current financial aid programs the state maintains are confusing, difficult for parents and students to understand, and inefficient at getting money to those students that need money the most. Instead of having multiple complex formulas, the Access Missouri scholarship program will have one simple formula, based on a family's ability to pay for college."

The more controversial aspect of the proposal is the privatization of MOHELA. MOHELA is one of the largest state lending organizations in the country. Blunt's plan is to sell off the existing loans to the highest bidder, regardless of whether the lending agency is based in Missouri. Two days before announcing this plan, Blunt fired MOHELA Director Michael Cummins, who was opposed to the sale. MOHELA's Board of Trustees is now on board with Blunt's proposal.

Several other states have toyed with this idea, to varying results. Virginia was the first, selling all state loans to Sallie Mae, a Virginia company. Not long afterwards, Arizona and Indiana followed Virginia's lead and sold to Sallie Mae. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts declined to privatize their state lending systems, citing the self-sustaining nature of their lending organizations.

The sale of MOHELA is estimated to add up to three hundred and fifty million dollars for the state budget. "The process is similar to a mortgage on a house," said Blunt. "My mortgage on my house gets sold to another company and it doesn't bother me. I send in the same check and the provisions don’t change. So we will make a little bit of money off the sale of these loans without any negative impact on the loan holder."

When asked if the loan money will stay in Missouri, Blunt said "Generally not. Often another state will buy them. We will sell them to whoever offers the best price."

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