No tuition freeze in Kelly’s budget after Kansas universities held rates flat last year

Gov. Laura Kelly’s budget proposal released Thursday includes $108 million in new spending for higher education in Kansas that officials hope will hold down tuition increases as both students and schools grapple with high inflation.

The Kansas Board of Regents – which oversees University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University and the other state universities – last year froze tuition. The regents’ decision came after the Republican-controlled Legislature passed and Kelly, a Democrat, signed into law additional funding for higher education, including restoring prior cuts in aid, but required universities to keep tuition flat.

But Kelly and higher education leaders are not making a firm guarantee this year.

“We feel like this puts them in a position to have modest increases if any,” Adam Proffitt, Kelly’s budget director, told lawmakers. The governor’s office isn’t pushing for a flat tuition requirement this year, he said.

The cost of college – encompassing tuition, fees, room and board – and how it can saddle students with debt are a perennial concern of students and their families. In-state undergraduate tuition ranges from $2,073 per semester for 15 credit hours at Fort Hays State University to $5,046 a semester at the University of Kansas.

One top Republican has already signaled he expects the Board of Regents to hold tuition steady.

“There’s significant money in there for the Regents,” Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said. “It would look pretty poor on them if they take all this new money and increase tuition.”

Board of Regents President and CEO Blake Flanders said the board’s initial reaction to Kelly’s budget proposal is “very positive,” though he cautioned he hadn’t had time to examine the budget in depth. He explicitly didn’t rule out a tuition increase, but suggested any increases would be small.

“If you look at the past history of the board, the board has had very small or no increases in tuition for a number of years,” Flanders told The Star. “And I would expect as we analyze our system and our needs and how inflation has impacted the universities, I would expect the same pattern of being very measured in terms of tuition.”

Kelly’s budget proposal includes nearly $66 million in base funding increases for higher education — which includes the Regents schools and other programs — and $42 million in one-time spending.

The increase in ongoing spending includes $20 million to expand financial aid and nearly $22 million to mitigate the effects of inflation. The one-time spending includes $20 million to address deferred maintenance, $12 million for information technology and cybersecurity improvements, as well as $10 million for demolition of buildings.

Kansas universities currently face more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance costs on aging buildings. For some of those buildings, it is now more cost efficient to tear them down than repair them.

Still, the Kansas Board of Regents had requested nearly $254 million in additional funding. That included $25 million to offset inflation and $20 million for I.T. and cybersecurity improvements.

Kelly’s proposal kicks off the budget process, but lawmakers will ultimately determine how much funding higher education will receive. The Legislature this spring will pass a budget; though Kelly can line-item veto spending.

The Board of Regents has sought to hold the line on tuition in recent years even as Kansas experiences falling enrollment across most of its higher education system.

At Kansas’ state universities, the number of students enrolled is 4.4% lower than a decade ago. Community colleges have experienced a nearly 29% drop, though enrollment at technical colleges has risen 40%. Community and technical colleges aren’t governed by the Board of Regents.

Higher education officials attribute enrollment decline, at least recently, in part to the extremely tight job market in Kansas. Employers are in desperate search of workers, making it easier for people who want a job to find one without feeling the need to go to school. Proffitt said Kansas currently has one unemployed individual for every two-and-a-half openings.

The University of Kansas has already had flat in-state tuition for the past four years. In-state tuition at Kansas State University, Wichita State University and every other public university hasn’t risen in at least three of the past four years.

“That’s one of the things we’re very proud of, that they never had an increase,” state Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat who is the senior associate director of KU’s Dole Institute of Politics, said of current students at the university.