Washburn raises strong objection to regents bill

? The Kansas Board of Regents and Washburn University are fighting about a proposal that would give the regents more authority over higher education in Kansas.

Regent Janice DeBauge of Emporia said Tuesday that Washburn, a 7,000-student, four-year school in Topeka, was holding all of Kansas higher education “hostage” by opposing the bill.

Topeka (ap) A bill designed to lure large donors to the state’s higher education system won the endorsement Monday of the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee.The committee’s voice vote sent the measure to the full Senate for debate.The bill would allow the state Board of Regents to establish a foundation to take donations, then create a state income tax credit equal to two-thirds of the amount of the donation.Under the bill, appropriations for the higher education system would be cut $1 for every $1 the state loses in income tax revenues.But the regents believe the lost appropriations to the regents would be more than offset by donations.

“One is keeping the others from being more accountable and efficient,” DeBauge said.

The regents-backed bill would require higher education institutions to sign performance contracts with the regents and tie future funding increases to whether the schools fulfill those contracts.

It would also eliminate the various commissions within the regents that deal specifically with a part of the higher education system, and it would specifically put the regents in charge of planning for higher education.

The bill is being considered by the Senate Education Committee.

DeBauge said the legislation was as important to improving the quality of higher education in Kansas as the schools’ budgets. Without its passage, DeBauge added, three years of coordination under a governance system reformed in 1999 will have gone to waste.

The bill is backed by Kansas University and every institution of higher education in the state except Washburn, regents officials said.

Without the legislation, individual institutions could question whether it has to comply with regents’ policies, regents officials said.

For its part, Washburn is not backing down.

Jerry Farley, Washburn president, said allowing the regents authority over increases in higher education funding gives an appointed board control over an appropriation now controlled by the Legislature.

Shawnee County legislators signed a letter to Education Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, stating their opposition to the bill.

The lawmakers noted that more than 80 percent of Washburn’s budget is paid by Topeka taxpayers, while the bill would “give virtual total control (of Washburn) to the Kansas Board of Regents. This is unacceptable.”