In Tuesday's State of the State and Democratic response, Governor Blunt and Attorney General Nixon definitely used a lot of statistics
KOMU is looking at what the men said about education to see whose facts put them at the head of the class.

Let's start with Attorney General Jay Nixon's Democratic response.

"It is now more expensive to go to a public four-year college in Missouri than in any other Big 12 state," said Jay Nixon, Missouri Attorney General.

True or false? It's the truth.

According to the College Board - Missouri is, in fact, the most expensive Big 12 state for public four-year schools. But, for the past three years, Missouri had the second lowest average rate of tuition increase for Big 12 states.

"Today, we are investing a smaller percentage of the state budget in schools than we did when this governor took office," said Nixon.

True or false? This one's ok.

In terms of general revenue funding, Missouri is spending a lower percentage of the budget on K-12 education. Today it stands at less than 34 percent. When Blunt took office, it was 36 percent.

And, let's look at what Governor Blunt said about funding for education.

"With this budget, over four years, we will have invested an additional $1.2 billion in education," he said.

This is a true statement. The state has budgeted $1.2 billion total for elementary, secondary and higher education since Governor Blunt took office.

But, the math to make that work is sort of complicated. The budget had an extra $266 million two years ago, an extra $119 million last year, and $231 million this year. Adding $266 million three times, $119 twice and then $231 million. Your total is approximately $1.267 billion.

Governor Blunt's office says the money comes from $660 million for elementary and secondary education. About $200 million went towards higher education and $335 million for the Lewis and Clark Initiative. To learn more about that initiative, visit the link in the KOMU Story Toolbox on the left side of this article.