Topeka ? Kansas University would get a $3.6 million boost under a bill given preliminary approval by the House on Wednesday.

The measure would allow public universities to keep the interest earned on tuition and student fees that currently goes toward the state’s all-purpose general revenue fund.

Universities have been seeking the interest funds for years.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said if the funding made it through the Legislature, it could be used for any number of items, including helping to pay for recent storm damage, making needed repairs delayed over the years, and increasing financial assistance to students.

“The university goes through priority setting all the time. We have a long list,” Hemenway said.

The estimated amount of interest on tuition and fees totaled $3.3 million for KU, and $337,000 for KU Medical Center.

Rep. Bill Feuerborn, D-Garnett, placed the interest funds amendment on a bill that dealt with tuition for children who leave the foster care system.

He immediately got backing from a number of legislators.

“At a time when every dollar we have available is going to K through 12, this is one way to put a little bit more money into higher education,” said Rep. Carl Krehbiel, R-Moundridge.

The measure faces a final House vote today and will likely go to a House-Senate conference committee for more work.

Amendments on Wednesday that would have mandated how universities spend the money were defeated.

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said the funds should go toward tuition assistance.

“The price of an education is getting steeper, and the state hasn’t kept pace with financial assistance,” Sloan said.

But other legislators said the individual universities should decide how to spend the money.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, proposed an amendment that would have required the schools to start paying for deferred maintenance projects with the new funds.

Universities have said they have a backlog of $586 million worth of repair projects.

Landwehr criticized universities for seeking private donors to fund new buildings and then having no plan to maintain those buildings.

But Hemenway said donors expected the state to maintain the buildings because the facilities become state assets.

“The expectation of the donor is that the state will maintain the asset that has been given to them,” he said.