EDITOR:
Apparently no one realizes at Metropolitan Community College that students can currently go there pretty much for FREE paid for with current taxes. Platte County R-3 and MCC participate in the Missouri “A+ Program” (Should be the C+ program because that is all that is required). So why are we voting for “reduced” tuition to MCC? Any student at R-3 or Park Hill that maintains a 2.5 or C+ GPA has at least a 95% attendance rate and does 50 hours of unpaid tutoring or mentoring, of which 25% can be “job shadowing,” can basically already attend their school for free. Your current tax dollars already fund the Missouri A+ Program.
This A+ program picks up the cost of tuition after other tax funded programs like the FAFSA program are used as FAFSA also provides grant money. A+ is an awesome program allowing pretty much any student that wants to get some form of higher education to do so they just have to put a little work in to make it happen.
Does it really hurt for students to have some “skin in the game” before using our tax dollars to attend college? I don’t think so.
If you want to attend a different college there are also multiple large colleges in Missouri that apply A+ dollars to their tuition. The A+ program works for everyone and most colleges not just MCC.
So to recap, MCC and its students already receive federal tax dollars, state tax dollars and now they want local tax dollars. MCC is asking for more money under the premise of reducing tuition for their two year programs while not telling you that students don’t have to have reduced tuition when with a little effort they could possibly attend for free.
MCC and its students have enough money as its students currently have a way to attend their two year programs virtually debt free if they put in a little effort, so please join me in VOTING NO on the Metropolitan Community College question this Nov 5.
For complete information here is the link to the state website on the A+ program. https://dhewd.mo.gov/ppc/grants-scholarships/a-plus
--Kirby Holden
Rural Platte County
