Higher Education Funding in the State of Missouri
By Kimberly L. Jackson, M.Ed.
January 2012
If you live in Missouri you might still be dissecting the Governor’s 2012 state of the state address. Did you catch the part about public higher education institutions in the state of Missouri needing to learn to operate more efficiently in order to provide a superb education with shrinking state funding?
Did you catch the announcement by the University of Missouri system saying they may need to raise tuition? If you are planning to attend one of Missouri’s state universities have you stopped to ask yourself how this is going to impact your plans of funding your college education? If you are not lucky enough to have unlimited funding for college then read on.
As you are working through your financial planning for college don’t ignore what is happening at the federal and state level with education budgets. Anticipate that tuitions at the state colleges will increase each year you are a student. Anticipate that grants and institutional scholarships will decrease. That means you will need to make sure your college fund is large enough to cover the loss of these dollars.
My advice for the coming years:
- Talk as a family about how much of the family budget can be spent on college. Talk in terms of 4 years and not just the first year of college.
- Plan for study abroad, summer internships and other opportunities that could add costs to your college budget.
- Talk to the Admission Counselors at your top choice schools about the percent of anticipated tuition increases over the next four years.
- Anticipate less federal and state money to help you pay for college.
- Set aside more money in the college fund.
- Set aside more time to search for outside scholarship options.
- Decide how many dollars you want to borrow in student loans.
- Know the rate of your monthly repayment on student loans before you borrow the money.
- Be smart and proactive about financing your college education.
