Kansas University may be spending more to educate students, but that’s not thanks to state support.

“We realize that we have to take our future into our hands,” said Lindy Eakin, KU vice provost for administration and finance.

A report on higher education finance released this week showed state support for higher education nationally hit a low point in 2005, when enrollment and inflation were taken into account. The report was released by the State Higher Education Executive Officers, a nonprofit association that supports postsecondary education.

In Kansas, higher education officials say they are encouraged by recent slight funding increases, following tough post-9-11 budget hits. But many say the state for a long time hasn’t been the dominant partner in paying the costs of running a university.

“None of us expect to go back to the days of the ’60s and early ’70s when 80 percent of the budget came from the state and tuition was fairly low,” Eakin said. “It appears that what’s happening is a shift from a higher education seen as a public good to a private benefit.”

Finding other sources

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius proposed a $20 million block grant for state universities this year. Sebelius’ recommendation in 2006 was $18 million, and the appropriation ended up being $11.6 million.

State general fund support to KU fell in fiscal 2003, down to $130 million from $137 million the year before. It continued to fall in fiscal 2004 before taking an upward turn.

Despite the fluctuations, the reality is that KU is looking to tuition and other sources to pay for its rising costs.

State support in 1991 covered about 44 percent of KU’s operating costs, according to the Kansas Board of Regents. In 2004, that figure had dropped to about 25 percent. The remaining costs were covered by tuition, private donations and other sources.

KU’s total operating expenditures in 1991 were about $227 million. In 2004, the figure was $512 million.

“Higher education has never been lavishly funded in Kansas,” KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said.

In fiscal 2003 – the same year that state funding dropped – KU started its tuition enhancement plan, which increased tuition to pay for “enhancements” such as new faculty, salary boosts, technology improvements and other items.

“Twenty years from now, people should look back at this period and say: ‘That was a historic moment,'” Eakin said of the tuition enhancement plan. “It’s this huge stimulus for activity and moving forward.”

Regent Dick Bond said the regents called recent increases in state support “incremental.”

“I think there is a declining commitment to higher education, while at the same time there is at least rhetoric that we want the economy to grow and we want to increase economic development,” he said. “But we are not providing the state funds to fuel that economic growth.”

‘Still quite a bargain’

Earlier this week, Alan Cobb, head of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax group, said Kansas already was spending enough on higher education, allocating a higher percentage of its state budget than the national average.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, vice chairwoman of the House budget committee, said universities are finding different ways to raise revenue, and that’s a good thing.

Rather than depending on state taxes, schools are partnering more with businesses, she said.

“Business is saying, ‘We need these type of people. How do we get them?'” Landwehr said. “You have to look at that balance.”

Tuition also has increased significantly at regents universities, but Landwehr said Kansas schools “are still quite a bargain for the quality.”

Sen. Chris Steineger, a Democrat from Kansas City who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, said the dwindling percentage of state support for higher education was partly a matter of values.

He said at least half of legislators lack four-year degrees.

“If the people making the decisions never bothered to go to college themselves, then they probably don’t value it,” he said.

But according to the Legislative Handbook, at least 29 of 40 state senators and 79 of 125 representatives reported having at least a four-year degree. That’s roughly 65 percent.