Kansas University officials are being forced to play a financial shell game as they seek to “enhance” an educational foundation that has been riddled by budget cuts.

Even the Kansas University provost refers to it as “schizophrenic behavior.” It’s the dilemma university officials face as they try to use new tuition dollars to improve students’ education without pouring any of the money into holes that officials believe should be filled by state tax funds.

An increase in student tuition this fall is expected to generate $8.6 million in new revenue plus $1.7 million for need-based financial aid. KU administrators say they are determined that money will be used for enhancements at KU, not to “fill the gaps” created by state budget cuts.

The “gaps” are looking more like a chasm. KU’s Lawrence campus already has been hit with about $6.1 million in state funding cuts, and more reductions are expected at the first of the year. With such drastic cuts, how can KU officials NOT apply tuition money to fill some of the gaps? How can they build “enhancements” on a foundation that’s riddled with holes?

KU Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost David Shulenberger outlined last week how the university intends to use its additional tuition money. The funds will be targeted on technology and classroom improvements, higher salaries for teaching assistants and tuition reimbursements for research assistants.

Another $1 million has been set aside for laboratory start-up and other costs associated with hiring new faculty members next year. University leaders hope to hire about 100 new faculty members, who will be chosen based on how they could help KU achieve Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s goal of making KU one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities.

This is where the financial shell game gets even more complicated. The administration plans to hire new teachers, but theoretically those teachers represent enhancements, not replacements for teachers whose positions were cut because of state budget shortfalls. It seems something akin to putting wallpaper over a hole in the plaster and hoping no one leans against it.

The accounting methods may be tricky, but the university’s effort to hold state legislators accountable for budget shortfalls is admirable. State officials should be made fully aware of where student tuition money is taking up the slack for state funding cuts. Along with that accounting should come the message that the state must restore that funding so that tuition money can be used as it was intended, to enhance not simply maintain the educational opportunities available to KU students.

Many Kansas voters consider funding decisions related to both K-12 and higher education in Kansas the single most pressing issue in the current election campaign. Candidates and officeholders shouldn’t be allowed to paper over gaping holes in state education funding.