Topeka ? Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to offer 15 credit hours of dual-enrollment college courses to every high school student, at no charge to the student, is being met with some skepticism from the state’s technical colleges.

Ben Schears, president of Northwest Kansas Technical College in Goodland, told the Kansas Board of Regents Wednesday that the state’s technical colleges are worried about being stretched too thin.

“As we move into this legislative session, waiting to see what happens with the Legislature, we just don’t want to have too many programs that are being put out there and not have enough funding to be able to successfully run all of them,” he said in an interview during a break in the meeting.

At issue is an earlier initiative Brownback championed in 2012, commonly known as Senate Bill 155 from that year, which provided nearly $12 million in tuition support for high school students to earn college credit by taking career and technical education courses.

That program proved more popular than expected, and in recent years, funding hasn’t kept up with the demand, Schears said.

Brownback has proposed adding $7.3 million in the current fiscal year to bring that program back up to full funding. But Schears said technical schools are wary of taking on new programs before that additional money is secured.

Brownback’s latest plan, estimated to cost about $24.5 million a year, represents an expansion of the S.B. 155 concept. It would encourage high schools to partner with area technical schools or community colleges so students could enroll in dual credit classes while still in high school. The state would reimburse the colleges at an estimated rate of $175 per three-hour course.

Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Board of Regents, said it is too early to predict what the new program will eventually look like. He said a Regents task force is drafting a bill, and that group hasn’t yet determined exactly how to price the courses because community colleges and technical schools use widely varying rates for different kinds of courses.

He also said it is not yet clear how much of the cost the postsecondary schools would bear, because it may be possible for some classes to be taught by high school faculty who are also qualified to teach at the college level.