Topeka ? Officials at Kansas University said they were relatively pleased with Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget proposal for higher education because at least it doesn’t call for cutting funding for colleges and universities.

“In the context where there are significant revenue challenges and spending challenges, flat is the new up,” said KU spokesman Tim Caboni. “If we can have consistent funding that is stable over time, we can work within that.”

But officials in K-12 education were left scratching their heads at Brownback’s proposal to do away with the basic school finance formula and fund schools directly through block grants that would amount to a $107 million cut in their operating budgets.

Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll said the concept of a block grant is appealing if that means districts have more flexibility in how they spend their money, “but not with less money.”

“In general, it seems unwise to abolish one formula until you have another one established,” Doll said. “That was the part that really surprised me.”

And John Robb, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the ongoing school finance lawsuit, said Brownback’s plan only worsens the state’s position.

“The courts have just found that the amount of money (school districts) got last year was unconstitutionally low,” Robb said. “So he accomplishes nothing by repealing the formula. It is still an unconstitutionally low level of funding.”

K-12 funding

The Brownback administration released some details of its proposal during a briefing Friday before a joint meeting of the House and Senate budget committees. The full plan was posted online on the Division of Budget website.

In the budget books, the administration says that the state cannot sustain over the long run certain automatic increases in “non-base” school funding such as increases in pension contributions and increases in equalization aid to poor districts whenever they increase their local option or capital outlay budgets.

The plan calls for doing away with the current formula and giving each district virtually the same amount of base aid they are receiving this year in the form of a block grant, plus the same amount of equalization aid for capital improvement and local option budgets.

But according to budget director Shawn Sullivan’s presentation to the legislative committees, the plan also calls for districts to spend part of that block grant — about $44.6 million statewide — to pay a portion of the employer contributions into the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, something that has until now been paid entirely by the state outside the school funding formula.

“They need to be part of the solution as we talk about KPERS this session. Hopefully, this will incentivize that,” Sullivan said.

The plan subtracts out of the base grants another $63 million, the amount of additional LOB and capital outlay aid the state will spend this year that was not anticipated in the budget lawmakers approved in the 2014 session.

That leaves a total of just over $3 billion available for block grants to school districts for each of the next two years, which appears to be at least $107 million less per year than districts are receiving this year in comparable categories of funding.

But Robb said that plan would only add to the constitutional problems in the funding system.

“Because it freezes the inequities in place,” Robb said. “If you are a growing district and you added 100 kids to your district, his proposal won’t fund the costs needed to hire four more teachers.”

Doll said that is exactly the situation in Lawrence, where enrollment has been growing at a rate of about 200 students a year, until this year, when it grew by only about 40 students.

“That’s exactly what happens when you cut. It drives class sizes up,” Doll said. “Among other things, You have to look at cuts, if you need to, across the board.”

Higher education

For the state’s colleges and universities, Brownback’s proposed budget makes very few changes from the current year’s budget.

For the state’s six Regents universities, it provides $591 million in general fund support in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $605 million in the following fiscal year.

For KU’s Lawrence campus, it provides $138 million in state support next fiscal year and $141 million the following year.

But that still leaves most of the universities relying more heavily on tuition than state support to fund their operations. In fact, for KU and Kansas State University, state support makes up less than half of what they now charge in tuition, and less than one-fifth of their total operating budgets.

Private donations, federal funding and other outside sources of revenue now make up about 41 percent of university operating budgets, according to state budget documents.

Elaine Frisbie, vice president for finance and administration at the Kansas Board of Regents, said the lack of any increase in state funding is likely to lead some of the universities to increase tuition again for the 2015-2016 academic year in order to keep up with rising costs.

“We will start talking next month about tuition. Those have not been set yet,” Frisbie said.

During those initial meetings, Frisbie said, each university will discuss what its funding needs will be for the following year. The Board of Regents typically waits until the summer, after the Legislature has finalized the budget, before making final decisions about tuition, Frisbie said.