State House votes to cut University of Missouri funding

(AP) — The House voted on Thursday to cut funding for the University of Missouri system following months of criticism from state lawmakers over how the institution's leadership dealt with student complaints about racial issues on the Columbia campus.

The relationship between the University of Missouri and lawmakers became strained after November protests over racial issues, which included a graduate student going on a hunger strike and some members of the football team threatened not to play a game in support.

Missouri also came under scrutiny for the actions of an assistant professor of communications, Melissa Click, who was fired after she barred student journalists from interviewing and photographing protesters during the unrest.

The budget passed on Thursday renews the fight over Planned Parenthood by barring the Department of Social Services — which administers most of the state's Medicaid program — from making any payments to organizations that provide nonemergency abortions.

[...] if the state's revenues grow higher than 3.1 percent — the House's more conservative projection, compared to Nixon's 4.1 percent estimate — the extra money will go into a surplus fund, which will pay for items such as performance-based funding for public colleges and a cost-share program for transportation projects.