A few days after we found out what kind of state funding Kansas' public universities might receive next year, the Chronicle of Higher Education has a report (link can be accessed for free) on how much higher-education funding states across the country provided for THIS school year.

And Kansas was more or less in line with the rest of the pack. The state's funding for higher ed — including both tax appropriations and other funds — rose by 2.7 percent in the 2013 fiscal year, or the 2012-13 academic year. But during the last five years, Kansas' state funding has still fallen by 8.1 percent.

That's about what most states have experienced; 30 states increased their higher-ed funding for this year, but 38 have reduced funding overall during the last five years. (In total, higher-ed funding decreased for the 2012-13 year, but that's largely because of some big cuts in some larger states, such as Florida and California.)

Compared with its neighboring states, Kansas' funding situation doesn't look too catastrophic: Missouri's funding fell slightly for 2012-13, and has fallen 8.9 percent for the last five years; Colorado levels sunk by 1.1 percent this year and 14.3 percent over five years; in Nebraska, though, funding has actually grown slightly during the past five years, including a 1.4 percent bump this year.

KU officials will certainly tell you that the funding situation since about 2008 has led to a host of challenges, though.

You can take a look at numbers from other states in that Chronicle story.

As for NEXT academic year, Gov. Sam Brownback's proposed budget last week would keep systemwide spending on higher education essentially flat for the next two years. It would recommend $35 million in bonding authority and $10 million in state funds to build a new education building at the KU Medical Center, though.

Money is tight everywhere these days, it seems. But you know what's free? Sending a KU news tip to merickson@ljworld.com!

If you were waiting on the edge of your seat to see what Gov. Sam Brownback might say about state higher-education funding in his State of the State speech last night, it may have been a bit anticlimactic: We won't know details about that until his proposed budget is revealed in full today.

But Brownback did suggest his budget would include support for one thing KU wants: a new educational building at the KU Medical Center. He also said it would allow for the training of 50 more medical doctors each year at the Med Center.

KU officials say the new building will help the Med Center move away from lecture-based education toward more hands-on simulations and training, as is the trend in medical education. KU is asking the state to chip in $30 million toward the proposed $75 million building, in addition to the release of a $26 million refund of payroll taxes that were incorrectly collected from the Med Center during the 1990s, which would also go toward the building effort.

As for higher-education funding in general, more information about what may be in store will come out today when the governor's budget is released.

Last month, the state Division of Budget recommended an 8 percent cut to higher-ed funding. KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said such a drop in funding would likely put jobs at risk. I also heard from a student group planning to publicly demonstrate against such cuts if they're proposed.

So keep watching LJWorld.com today to learn more about the fate of state higher-education funding. And while you're at it, keep your KU news tips coming to merickson@ljworld.com.