Raising student tuition is an ineffective way for Kansas University officials and the Kansas Board of Regents to express their displeasure with the Kansas Legislature.

It hurts the students and their families, not state legislators, and only encourages lawmakers to count on universities being able to use tuition to make up for shortfalls in state funding.

The regents had agreed to hold tuition steady if lawmakers stuck with a 7 percent budget cut for next year. However, faced with the need to trim the budget to deal with a $328 million deficit, legislators made further changes that resulted in a 10 percent reduction for higher education.

It’s understandable that university officials are upset by the cuts and even angry with legislators for not finding another way to balance the state budget. They are not alone. Funding for K-12 schools also was severely cut, along with many other aspects of the state budget.

However, raising tuition is not the right way to express that anger.

In comments at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting, KU Provost Richard Lariviere showed his frustration with lawmakers’ decision to cut deeper than 7 percent. “When the Legislature laughed and walked away,” he said, “that deal was off the table.”

We don’t know whether legislators literally laughed as they were making the cuts, but it seems unlikely. The budget situation facing the state was no laughing matter. It’s legitimate to disagree with how it was handled, but it’s not like the state had plenty of money and just decided not to give any of it to higher education.

Now the regents also face a difficult decision: whether to raise tuition rates at a time when it would be an undue burden on students and their families and, if so, by how much. One proposal is to raise tuition only enough to make up the additional 3 percent budget cut made in the wrap-up session. However, based on the idea that “that deal was off the table,” KU officials are seeking larger tuition increases.

KU officials may be peeved at the Legislature, but it’s time to think about the students. If the regents believed they could weather the 7 percent cut without doing serious damage to the state’s higher education system, they should raise tuition just enough to get them back to that point. Raising tuition beyond that level only hurts students without sending any useful message to state legislators.