After respite, Kansas tuition increases may resume as students brace for ‘huge burden’

As a Kansas high school student, Kelly Henning remembers wondering whether the academic year would start on time as the Legislature scrambled to boost funding amid court battles over whether schools were adequately funded.

Nearly five years later, Henning, now 20 and a sophomore at the University of Kansas, said she’s learned to expect public education in Kansas to be underfunded — and to deal with the consequences.

The De Soto native is preparing to work longer hours this summer and over holiday breaks to help pay off the student loan debt she’s accumulating.

“I never really expected it to be affordable,” Henning said this past week as she headed to class.

Over the past decade, tuition for a full 15-hour credit load at the University of Kansas or Wichita State University has climbed by roughly 50 percent. It now costs $5,046 a semester for full-time students at KU, or $3,354 at Wichita State University. It’s $4,687 at Kansas State University.

Last year, higher education leaders held tuition flat for resident undergraduate students at Kansas universities. It was an extraordinary event, the first time in modern memory the state had held the line on college costs.

But it appears the relief will be fleeting.

Legislators this week signaled they probably won’t approve a funding increase that university leaders say would allow them to keep tuition flat again. While the Legislature is expected to approve additional dollars, state aid to higher education will likely remain below pre-recession levels.

Competing with state hospitals, prisons

The Board of Regents, which governs public universities in Kansas, has requested a $50 million increase for the schools and $96 million overall. Gov. Laura Kelly is proposing an additional $15 million in base funding as part of a $29 million increase.

On Thursday, the Republican-controlled House Higher Education Budget Committee largely adopted the Democratic governor’s plan for university funding. The Legislature won’t set funding levels until later this spring, but the committee’s decision served as the first official sign of which way lawmakers are leaning.

“I would love to give all this money to the Board of Regents,” Rep. Tom Phillips, a Manhattan Republican, said of the funding requested by the board.

Phillips acknowledged that politically, “the optics would look good” for him to vote for it. But, “I know inside this building, a $96 million increase is not going to survive,” he said.

As state revenues continue to rise following the Legislature’s 2017 rollback of Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature tax cuts, lawmakers have had to grapple with how to spend the additional dollars. Troubled state hospitals, under-stress prisons and state employees are all competing for additional resources.

Rep. Brandon Woodard, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that the committee’s recommendation “does fall short.”

“But it’s a step forward of rebuilding our higher education system for the upcoming generation of Kansas workers,” the Lenexa lawmaker added.

The regents aren’t expected to set tuition rates until after the legislative session concludes, probably in May. That allows them to set rates in light of the aid approved by legislators.

It also means universities can use tuition as a stop gap if state aid is less than anticipated.

Enough to consider dropping out

Interviews with nearly a dozen Kansas university students last week demonstrate a growing concern over the tuition increases that they fear could make school unaffordable.

Alaina DeLeo, 21, holds two jobs while studying Russian security and international affairs at the University of Kansas. She’s spent the past four years taking 18-credit hours on top of her work schedule. When she visits family in Omaha, Nebraska, she usually takes up another job there as well.

“I’m paying for college myself,” said DeLeo, a senior. “So any increase in tuition is a huge burden.”

Keri Pfrang, 23, has switched her major five different times since enrolling at Kansas State University. The Westmore native tacked on a fifth-year to complete a degree in life science.

While most of Pfrang’s college was paid through a savings account her parents started when she was young, she worries about how she’ll afford an additional three years of school for her doctorate in physical therapy.

“It’s enough to make you sometimes contemplate dropping out and making sure you know what you want before you get back into college,” Pfrang said.

Katie McKenna, a 20-year-old junior studying secondary education at Kansas State University, said tuition prices are already steep, on top of other fees students pay for extracurriculars.

“Not giving the universities that money can definitely impact students in the way that how much more debt (students) have to go into,” McKenna said, “or even how much longer they’ll have to be paying that off after college.”

Frozen tuition not always good

Tuition freezes have been fairly common since the early 90s, according to Joni Finney, director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania. In one high-profile example, the University of California held tuition flat for three years nearly a decade ago.

Still, Finney said freezes aren’t generally a good idea over the long term.

“One or two classes get through at a flat rate and then because the institution hasn’t had any real growth in tuition revenue, they really increase it for a group coming in,” Finney said.

The possibility of repeated years of frozen tuition appears remote in Kansas.

Over the past decade, Kansas universities have grown tuition dollars even as state funding has remained basically flat.

In the last 10 years, tuition revenue collected by Kansas universities grew by $276 million, or 53 percent. State aid, is only up $13 million, or 2 percent.

The imbalance comes as higher education officials grapple with sharp downturns in enrollment.

The University of Kansas is down nearly 8 percent from 10 years ago. At Kansas State University, the drop is roughly 6.5 percent.

Pittsburg State University and Emporia State University, both smaller schools, have seen double-digit or nearly double-digit drops.

Those declines have been largely offset by a 37 percent jump in enrollment at Fort Hays State University over the past decade, driven by international students and distance learning. Overall, enrollment is flat across all universities, declining about 1 percent.

Agustin Rodriguez, a 20-year-old junior studying computer science at Kansas State University, anticipates declining enrollment will make college more expensive in the coming years.

“If (tuition) goes up even more,” he said, “it’s going to get to a point where a lot of students won’t be able to come to these universities.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.