Sheltered workshop, SFCC could face budget cuts

Cuts might be ahead in programs ranging from sheltered workshops to scholarships for local students.

Lawmakers asked the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with a contingency plan for severe cuts in state aid — cuts that would extend to colleges and universities.

Higher education institutions were asked to come up with plans for 15 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent cuts.

Marsha Drennon, president of State Fair Community College, said a 15 percent cut in state money would mean $842,529 less in the school’s $26 million operating budget.

Drennon said state officials asked college staff in December to come up with what she described as “what-if scenarios” for the cuts.

“While community colleges and higher education across the state have typically had to deal with reductions and withholdings since 2001, this request is significant,” she said.

The college reviews its programs regularly to see which draw the most students. Drennon said the college will continue to examine its programs, particularly high-cost programs, to determine which have fallen out of favor with students.

The college is in a tough spot.

People usually head back to school in a bad economy, and enrollment at the school has been up the past few semesters, Drennon said.
“We’re looking at maintaining quality services and keeping educational programs vibrant and serving the needs of our community,” she said.

The college offers degrees through its online courses, which draw students that would not normally enroll, she said.
Online courses are often taught by adjunct, or part-time, faculty, which help make them more cost-effective.

Community colleges aren’t the only educational institutions that will face cuts.
Jim Morris, director of public information for DESE, said the agency prepared a plan for a 15 percent cut in its budget, almost $51 million.
State aid money for local districts — about $2.9 billion of the department’s $5 billion budget — was exempt from the contingency plan, Morris said.

The state would eliminate the summer Missouri Scholars and Fine Arts academies for gifted students, which would save $700,000 per year, and cut funding for the A+ scholarship program by 15 percent, or $500,000.

Programs aimed at teacher education and training and salaries could also see cuts.
The largest portion of the cuts would come from the possible elimination of the state’s sheltered workshop program, which offers employment to disabled adults.

Elimination of the program would save about $21 million, Morris said.
“How this is going to shake out and which programs will be affected, we simply don’t know,” Morris said.

Nothing is set in stone.

"The request came from the budget staffs for the House and Senate, so the governor-elect hasn’t weighed in yet with his ideas or his proposals. So what school officials are asking us what to expect or what to plan for and all we can tell them is ‘We don’t know,’ ” he said.

The state fiscal year ends June 30.

Roger Garlich, manager of Cooperative Workshops Inc. in Sedalia, said about 11 percent of the workshop’s funding comes from the state.
The $209,000 the shelter receives goes to offset the workshop’s overhead, he said.

“Certainly, that would be a huge impact on our workshop,” he said.
Productivity of workshop employees is about 40 percent of a non-disabled employee, Garlich said, so the subsidy helps keep the workshop competitive.

The Sedalia workshop employs 57 people and provides vocational training for 82 more people in Pettis, Saline and Benton counties.
Loss of the state subsidy would mean the workshop would have to add the costs onto their bids for work, making their bids less competitive, Garlich said.

Garlich expressed disbelief that the state would cut the program entirely.
“I can’t imagine, personally, that they would totally stop funding the sheltered workshop program,” he said.