Pittsburg — Regents accept proposal to change funding formula for community colleges.
The Kansas Board of Regents accepted a proposal Wednesday that would change the distribution of funding to community colleges across the state.
The proposal does not increase the amount of money the colleges are supposed to receive under a plan adopted by the Legislature this year. It only adjusts the distribution of funds by changing the way the amount of funding for each school is determined.
The regents will recommend the change to the Legislature in December. Before it is adopted, the Legislature will have to approve it.
The proposal the regents adopted was approved unanimously last week by the presidents and trustees of the state's 19 community colleges.
Saying many legislators thought it would be impossible for the board to work out an agreement with all 19 schools, board Vice Chairman Clay Blair III said, "(The agreement) gives us credibility."
Sheila Frahm, executive director of the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees, said the proposal "approaches the fairness we were looking for."
Board members have said working out an agreement on community college funding was the first big test they faced since the board was reconstituted in the last legislative session.
The Higher Education Coordination Act, which took effect this summer, gave the regents authority over all of public higher education in the state. The act also defined the formula by which community colleges are to be funded. Smaller colleges were worried they would lose money as the change to increased state funding is phased in over four years.
The formula's goal is to phase out community college reliance on local property taxes and out-of-district tuition in exchange for increased money from the state general fund.
The formula adopted by the Legislature begins homogenizing amounts of money that, in the past, have been derived from a variety of funding streams with different purposes.
Under the formula currently in the law, the amount of funding for each college is determined by taking the cost of instruction for freshmen and sophomores in the regional state universities, which are Fort Hays State, Pittsburg State and Emporia State. This number is multiplied by 50 percent and then multiplied by the number of full-time equivalent students at the community college.
Also, under the formula, five community college that are combined with area vocational technical schools receive two times the credit hour cost from the state for each hour taken by a student in a vocational program, like nursing, at the school.
The other 14 community colleges receive one and a half times the credit hour cost for each credit hour taken by a student in a vocational program.
Thomas Burke, president of the Kansas City, Kan., Community College, said a change in the credit hour aid provided to the 14 community colleges would solve the problem.
KACCT proposal's would increase the amount of credit aid for the 14 schools to 1 and three-quarters the per-credit hour cost.
The change would be phased in throughout the next four years.
Under either formula, the total amount of state money provided to the community colleges will be $74.7 million.
However, for a college like Cloud County, the change would mean it does not have to get a state grant, also planned in the law, to make sure it does not lose money under the formula.
Under the proposal adopted by the regents Wednesday, Cloud County would receive an increase of $330,000 in the next fiscal year over the amount currently intended by the law.
In essence, the change is being paid for by Johnson County Community College, which would see its aid under the formula reduced by more than $2 million.
-- Erwin Seba's phone-message number is 832-7145; his e-mail address is eseba@ljworld.com.
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