Top administrators from Kansas’ six public universities pulled up chairs, spoke into microphones and testified to the monetary values their institutions provide, the local and regional economies they drive and the financial pressures they all face: millions, even billions of dollars’ worth of jobs and technologies and training and everything else that goes into helping a state survive and thrive.

Too bad Thursday afternoon’s presentation wasn’t before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, or the House Appropriations Committee in Topeka, given that each administrator is working to preserve or extend state financing for higher education.

“They have a strong case to make,” said Duane Goossen, the state’s budget director and secretary of administration, who was among 40 or so academics, educators and economic-development leaders to listen in on the high-powered panel discussion. “But to actually get the funding, that’s the case that needs to be made to the Legislature and the larger Kansas public.”

The administrators know this, and that’s why they showed up for the Kansas Economic Policy Conference at Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics.

KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little discussed the more than $200 million a year KU generates in research funding, the 17 companies that have spun off from such research efforts and the plans for National Cancer Institute designation — a center expected to result in 9,400 jobs.

Ruth Dyer, senior vice provost of Kansas State University, outlined the benefits of Wildcat research on crop production, architectural design, even the growth of rural grocery stores. Also: Establishment of the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility, a federal lab expected to cost $650 million, create 1,500 construction jobs and carry an ongoing payroll of 450 positions, all adding up to $3.5 billion of economic impact during its first 20 years.

Donald Beggs, president of Wichita State University, noted how the state’s $21 million invested in research at WSU during the past seven years had paid off by attracting another $75 million from private industry and $115 million from the federal government.

That’s $9 coming in for every $1 spent, he said.

“I’ll take that kind of leverage on return any day,” Beggs said.

Presidents from Emporia State, Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State universities also took their turns, touting teacher programs, partnerships with China and the addition of Spanish-language programs to meet the work-force needs of local companies.

Add it all up — and more — and the leaders are convinced they can make a solid case before the Kansas Legislature this coming session, where politicians will be facing a long list of needs and a limited pool of resources.

All while trying to lift an economy out of the remnants of the Great Recession.

“You can’t build your way out of this situation with highways,” said Michael Lane, president of Emporia State. “You can’t build your way out of this situation providing Medicare. Yes, you can build your way out of this situation through education, and — to the best of my knowledge — that’s the only way out of this situation.

“So I think we have to work hard with our legislators, and maybe, more importantly, we have to work hard with the citizens of Kansas to help them understand that education is not a cost. Education is an investment, and there’s a huge return on that investment for the state of Kansas.”