Regents oppose bill requiring prospectus for all degree programs

? The Kansas Board of Regents came out in opposition Wednesday to a bill that would require all public colleges and universities in the state to provide a detailed one-page prospectus on the costs and future employment benefits of every degree program they offer.

But supporters of Senate Bill 193 said it would be a useful tool as students and their families try to decide where they want to go to school and what they want to study so they could compare the relative costs and benefits of programs at different state institutions.

Blake Flanders, the Regents’ vice president for workforce development, told the House Education Committee that universities already provide a wealth of information about the costs of degree programs and the type of job opportunities available to graduates. But he said the information called for in the bill would be hard to collect, and in many cases would be inaccurate, especially information about post-graduation salaries.

Flanders said much of that information, especially job placement and salary data, would have to be gathered from survey information, which is often flawed, especially if it has to be based on surveys of graduates from each institution.

“Here’s what I can tell you about self-reported data from graduates,” Flanders said. “I think many times it’s over-estimated. Not many graduates ever want to admit that I’m not working for a very high wage.”

Flanders also said the Board of Regents already provides much of the information the bill calls for in an annual report that it publishes and makes available to the Legislature. Much of that, however, is based on U.S. Department of Labor data about salaries paid for various types of jobs, not necessarily the salaries paid to graduates of individual institutions.

He also said few people ever look at that report.

“It’s one of the most under-consumed reports we have,” Flanders told the committee.

The bill passed the Senate in March, 27-11. But the Board of Regents did not oppose the bill at that time, Flanders said, because officials there were working with committee members in hopes of changing some of its language.

Sen. Jeff Melcher, R-Leawood, one of the main sponsors of the bill, said he thinks parents and their families need more information about the relative costs and benefits of degree programs, especially as students are taking out increasing amounts of debt to finance their education.

And in an unusual procedure, he backed up that statement by showing part of a campaign video from Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, who said during a campaign speech that he had more than $100,000 of student loan debt by the time he graduated from law school.

“We can no longer afford to graduate people from school with loans and degrees that do not meet the jobs,” Rubio said. “And that’s why I believe before any of our young people take out student loans, that school has to tell you how much you can expect to make when you graduate with that degree from that school so people can decide whether it’s worth borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to major in basket-weaving.”

The House committee did not take action on the bill Wednesday. Committee chairman Ron Highland, R-Wamego, did not indicate whether the panel would take action before the end of the session.