Embattled Missouri governor proposes more cuts to colleges

[TexasTowelie]

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens proposed another round of cuts to public colleges and universities Monday during a budget announcement that also marked his first public appearance since acknowledging an extramarital affair nearly two weeks ago.

While unveiling a recommended $28.8 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins in July, the Republican governor said increased spending on health care "means we have to tighten up in other areas of government and spend less money." He cited growth in "administrative costs" at many universities while recommending a 10 percent reduction compared to the amount that higher education institutions originally were budgeted to get during the current year.

Greitens attempted to focus on the budget during the news conference at his Capitol office, but reporters repeatedly asked him about the affair that he first acknowledged Jan. 10 after a report by television station KMOV.

As was the case in a Saturday interview with The Associated Press, Greitens did not directly answer repeated questions from reporters Monday over whether there is any truth to allegations that he took a partially nude photo of the woman. He said there was "no photograph for blackmail," one of the claims made in a secretly-recorded conversation between the woman and her then-husband.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/embattled-missouri-governors-budget-cuts-68m-schools-52534695

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I'm a missouri boy that is saying 'Yeah, right governor, no pics for blackmail'...

Remember that Missouri is known as the 'show me state' ... Greitens is simply living up to Mo traditions in showing the rest of us about his tryst if need be via his photos and/or acceptable rape (remember Akins?)...

I definitely believe the girl's story (relayed by an ex-husband) more than I believe Greitens...seems like the entire repug party has taken a course/class titled 'How to avoid Responsibility For Your Own Actions' when you screw up. Perhaps this is also tRUMP's class/course titled 'Never Admit You're Wrong'?, whom I think is a sexual predator and his congressional thugs know it too (at least 16 women!).

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Cutting education? I thought Greitens supported our teachers? I thought his Mom was a teacher?

I can understand the tendency to cut back education dollars since the results of a better education seem hard to measure, benefits-wise. I know that major companies engaging in training their work forces coming in for areas such as software development/support/etc. spent a lot of dollars in doing so, so in some cases, mandated that in exchange for this training, employee w/ be forgiven a partial amount of training costs during a year by year basis, usually lasting until 3-5 years. This way, the corporation was guaranteed that it retained the benefits of its training dollars, e.g., employee was retained somewhere in the corporation roster.

This is of course better than going to all of the expense of training an employee, and then at end of training or immediately afterwards, that employee leaves the corporation for another job.

Another method was to have employees on a 'probationary' basis during training, and then afterwards during their work career on short term basis, lasting a year or so.

Measuring the success of training dollars has long been a hard thing to do. If anyone can come up w/ a solution, then come forward. W/ the job markets being technology-driven, and the cycle is going faster and faster, this is a major challenge for companies as they run the fine line of risk by doing too little or too much and then getting caught on the wrong side.

This is where the state education dollars comes in, helping the Mom and Pop operations and small companies in providing these training dollars. Also, in economically challenged areas of the state, these education funds can be a life saver for citizens and provide them w/ better economic choices than what is currently available.