Pittsburg — Months of work and diplomacy help the regents pass their first big test as a new board.
Months of work by community college leaders and some higher education diplomacy led to the proposed change in community college funding adopted by the Board of Regents here Wednesday.
One month ago, when the regents met in a retreat at Valley Falls to plan their goals and objectives for the year, they recognized they faced a crucial early test: How to adjust the formula for state funding to community colleges.
Some board members and state university CEOs worried that if they could not solve the problem they would lose credibility with the Legislature and community colleges that could call on powerful legislators to reopen the Higher Education Coordination Act. That act, adopted this spring, gave the board authority over all of public higher education in the state. In 1998, one house of the Legislature voted to dissolve the board. Some saw themselves standing between the reconstituted board and its dissolution.
The formula, according to board members, was a necessary compromise to pass the act. Even the formula's author, Rep. Richard Reinhardt, D-Erie, said the formula might need some changes.
Community college leaders began working as the ink on the new law was drying to figure out how to change the formula.
Sheila Frahm, executive director of the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees, said technical support staff produced ream after ream of paper studying the formula and analyzing its flaws, looking for possible solutions.
By July when the new board took office, community college leaders worried the board would not see the formula's perceived inequities as a problem.
Regents did recognize the problem and its political implications. That was part of the reason they worked hard to build on relationships with the community college leaders. They believed the best outcome would be a unanimous recommendation by the community colleges for a change. They especially needed Johnson County Community College's support. Johnson County had gained the most money under the formula in the state law.
Regents began meeting a few community college leaders to work out a proposal all could accept.
The board's vice chairman, Clay Blair III, a prominent Johnson County businessman, became pivotal to the agreement.
Board Chairman William Docking said some have called Blair "the Henry Kissinger" of the unanimous agreement reached last week between the community college presidents and trustees supporting the proposal.
Blair remains diplomatic about his role.
"Several of the players got together," he said Wednesday. "I was there."
-- Erwin Seba's phone-message number is 832-7145; his e-mail address is eseba@ljworld.com.
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