JEFFERSON CITY - Led by Jay Nixon, Democrat leaders have chosen to put politics ahead of Missouri students by opposing Gov. Matt Blunt?s bold plan to provide $350 million for new research facilities for universities and colleges across the state.

?Candidate Jay Nixon and his fellow Democrat leaders prefer to play politics with this issue rather than support a plan for higher education that will benefit Missouri students and create facilities to enhance our state?s ability to compete in the global economy,? said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. ?Democrats will find any excuse to try and politicize an issue, even one that will build our state?s future. Democrat leaders have disgraced themselves in the eyes of Missourians who support higher education and expect their state government to do the same.?

The funding plan calls for selling $350 million worth of assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which was created by the state to improve access to student lending. Of that, $332 million would help build university facilities; $15 million would fund an endowment to create, attract and retain high-tech companies; and more than $3 million would replace equipment at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Dentistry.

The new funding plan builds on the $17 million in new funding for higher education in the current budget approved by Blunt and Republican leaders that constituted the first funding increase for higher education in five years.

?After years of Democrat neglect of our higher education system, Gov. Blunt and Republican leaders stepped up and kept their commitment to higher education and our economic future,? Sloca said. ?Instead of offering solutions to improve higher education, Democrats offer only politically-motivated rhetoric that defies logic and reason and jeopardizes the promise of this bold initiative.?