If I've been distracted this week, well, I can first point to Daylight Savings Time—losing that hour of sleep has really thrown me off my game. But beyond that, my attention has been a bit diverted by the deliberations of the Missouri House Budget Committee. For the last month, I've been keeping tabs on the status of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education budget, ever since Gov. Jay Nixon announced his plans to eliminate 20 state programs from Missouri's budget.
One of those programs, you see, occupies merely a single line item in the DESE budget, but is dear to my heart and central, I believe, to what small success I've achieved thus far in life. Yes, I'm talking about something geeky again: the Missouri Scholars Academy, a three-week summer program for promising high-school sophomores. Say what you will about gifted ed; I just know that I wouldn't be where I am today without having taken part in that program nine years ago.
Sadly, in late February I watched the House Education Appropriations Committee, charged with the duty of making $200 million in cuts to various programs, split along party lines and ultimately do little more than rank education programs by importance. Apparently they dared not recommend specific cuts, lest the committee's Republican members be put "out on a limb" with constituents. (Yes, they literally said that.) Ultimately, a budget appeared with no mention of the Missouri Scholars Academy or Missouri Fine Arts Academy, and attempts by Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, to amend the education budget bill to include the academies failed in committee yesterday. Even after receiving hundreds of letters from supporters of the academies, House Republicans held their ground through 10 hours of deliberations. (Kudos to Springfield News-Leader reporter Chad Livengood, by the way, for Twittering the entire thing.)
Sigh. I could write—and have already written—volumes about Missouri Scholars Academy's influence on my life in particular, as well as its importance to the state of Missouri at large. I'll save that for my personal letters to legislators. I just know that the House Budget Committee reconvenes for final deliberations March 23—and if supporters of the academies haven't made their case clear by then, they may never get another chance. —Margaret Bauer, Associate Editor
