Kansas legislators say they are concerned about rising tuition at state universities but apparently not concerned enough to consider additional state funding to reduce the need for tuition increases.

In fact, a “compromise” written into the current version of the state budget agrees to hold state university funding steady (not increase it) in exchange for universities agreeing not to raise tuition.

Legislators aren’t the only ones concerned about higher tuition placing an additional burden on families and simply making it financially impossible for some students to pursue higher education opportunities at all. However, freezing tuition without supplying additional state resources to offset rising operational costs is a one-sided deal.

Although a Kansas University official initially spoke positively about the plan, the Kansas Board of Regents opposed the tuition freeze and urged university leaders to speak out against it. Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz did just that this week, saying in a letter to the Topeka Capital-Journal, “Freezing tuition without any increase in state support will severely limit our ability to maintain the quality academic programs our students deserve.”

Two new reports from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) supported the contention that, even with rising tuition, state universities are falling behind and failing even to return to pre-recession levels of state funding.

According to the SHEEO report, state appropriations in Kansas dropped by 18.4 percent, or $1,276, per full-time equivalent student from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2014. From FY 2009 to FY 2014, tuition costs per full-time students have increased by 20 percent, but the $980 full-time equivalent tuition increase still was less than the loss in state funding. When tuition and state aid are combined, universities’ total per-student revenue has declined by 2.4 percent.

The AAUP reports a 7.9 percent decline in state appropriations for higher education between 2008 and 2013 and just a 2.77 increase in tuition in the same period.

While these reports support the case that tuition increases are tied to state funding reductions, not all legislators see that connection. House Speaker Ray Merrick told the Capital-Journal that tuition was on the rise before the recession triggered reductions in state funding. “It’s intellectually dishonest,” he said, “to lay the blame at the feet of the Legislature when history clearly demonstrates that tuition will rise regardless of the money the universities receive from the state.”

So, it seems the best state universities in Kansas can hope for is flat per-student funding that’s below pre-recession levels with no opportunity to make up the difference with tuition increases. They can only hope that in final negotiations to balance the state budget, the Legislature doesn’t decide to reduce university funding while keeping the ban on higher tuition in place.

Either way, it’s no wonder Kansas university officials are worrying about how to maintain the quality of their institutions.