JEFFERSON CITY – Budget recommendations by Gov. Matt Blunt match funding requests.

Only three of the state’s 10 public baccalaureate and higher degree-granting institutions saw funding cuts over Fiscal Year 2005 appropriations.

Missouri Southern had the largest cut percentage-wise with 1.2 percent or $250,000.

The other institutions with funding cuts were Missouri Western State College with a one percent cut, or $200,000, and Southwest Missouri State University with a one half percent cut or $475,000.

The only school to see an increase was the University of Missouri with a one percent increase of more than $628,000.

The State Coordinating Board of Higher Education would have funding cut 43 percent from $805,000 to $455,000. A portion of this cut is the result of staff reallocation for information technology resources that will be administered by the Office of Administration.

Blunt is working to improve government efficiency by emphasizing new technology.

He has ordered management of state information technology resources be consolidated under the Office of Administration.

The new line item for the Department of Higher Education for “Information Technology Consolidation” has a budget of over $1.15 million.

Blunt’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget provides a total $1 billion for the Department of Higher Education, the third year the budget has totaled more than a billion dollars.

To help Missouri families cope with rising tuition costs, Blunt has challenged Missouri’s colleges and universities to increase the efficiency of their operations.

Of the 10 public four-years institutions, Southern will receive $3,856 per student.

This figure is found by dividing Blunt’s proposed Fiscal Year 2006 budget by the 2003 enrollment figures supplied by the Missouri Department of Higher Education.

This figure represents the smallest financial support per student per public four-year institutions in the state.

The three schools with funding cuts this year are also the three schools with the lowest financial support for students. MWSC will receive $4,173 per student and SMSU will receive $4,213 per student.

The top two schools for funding per student are the University of Missouri and Truman State University with $6,466 and $6,989, respectively.

Southern ranked seventh in total headcount enrollment for 2003.