Roughly two months ago, Kansas Department of Transportation secretary Deb Miller came to Pittsburg to address government and business leaders about the need for transportation funding and the imperative nature of that need.
Tuesday afternoon at Pittsburg State, the Kansas Board of Regents addressed government and business leaders and echoed the same sentiments as Miller, but for a different cause: higher education.
Board of Regents Vice Chairman Gary Sherrer and Regents President/CEO Reggie Robinson noted several statistics and studies about the effects of higher education on the state and local governments.
There were plenty of statistics to go around.
In the fiscal year of 2008, $883 million in state funding leveraged $1.9 billion in outside funding.
Since 1988, the two explained, funding has dropped 20 percent for higher education (expenditures per fall full-time student) while enrollment has climbed by 13 percent.
In 1988, 21.1 percent of the state budget was dedicated to higher education, while in 2008 the figure had dropped to 17.1 percent.
Robinson in particular noted the declining amount of state funding to higher education. The current allotment for higher education in Kansas for the fiscal year 2010 is $753 million, just $6 million more than the fiscal year of 2006. Robinson said that is significant, because Kansas also received higher education funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus package). The only string to those funds, he said, is that state higher education spending at least matches or exceeds the FY 2006 total.
Many schools are already dealing with higher education costs by raising tuition. Robinson noted that in 1988, students paid 16 percent of the costs of higher education through tuition while the state paid 47 percent of the costs. Twenty years later, the state only pays 27 percent of the cost of higher education while students pay tuition worth 26 percent of the total cost of higher education.
“The regents are particularly concerned with the impact increasing tuition has on access,” Robinson said. “There is a longstanding tradition in this state of low tuition so that even those with low means can afford higher education. We have to have a reasonable tuition because access is a part of that state tradition. That puts pressure on us. The whole access agenda is something we need to keep in mind.”
The pair also noted that for every $1 Kansas spends on higher education, the state gets $3 in return. Interestingly, KDOT secretary Miller noted in September that every dollar spent in the Comprehensive Transportation Plan effectively tripled the impact of every dollar.
Ultimately, Robinson and Sherrer’s plea for higher education funding will have to fall upon the Kansas Legislature to ensure funding for the Board of Regents.
That’s where things get tricky.
In order to provide additional funding to higher education, money will have to come from somewhere. And as revenues are coming in low, it brought up several issues.
Most notably is a word Robinson and Sherrer tried desperately to avoid on Tuesday: taxes.
However, state Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, suggested that may have to be a solution.
“A tax isn’t bad. Wisely spending tax funds is a good thing, whether it’s education, a new CTP, helping folks with developmental problems,” Menghini said. “They totally ignored that aspect, which is crazy. There can’t be much money left being spent unwisely in this state.”
State Sen. Bob Marshall, R-Fort Scott, said that given a choice among funding K-12, funding higher education and funding a new CTP, that as much as he regretted it, a new CTP would likely suffer. However, these decisions would likely weigh heavy on legislators minds.
“These decisions can’t be considered in a vacuum,” Marshall said. “They must be considered as part of the total state budget. When we do that, you have to consider where we are going to lower basic services. Is it in K-12? Is it in higher education? Or is it the penal institutions or the state hospitals? All that factors into it.”
Marshall said the issue would likely not be in legislators hands for 2010, but if revenues are down next year, the state Legislature will have plenty of decisions to make about fiscal year 2011.
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132.
