Nathan Markham is selling Cutco knives this summer to keep tuition increases at Kansas University from cutting too deeply into his college savings fund.

Meanwhile, the state of Kansas is hacking away at higher-education funding.

A study released Wednesday shows Kansas is second to last among states with Big 12 schools when it comes to contributing to higher education and the gap is widening.

That means students or their parents are footing more of the bill over time. Regents today are expected to approve a 17 percent tuition increase at KU, the second big increase in a five-year plan to double tuition by 2007.

“Raising tuition like this year is one thing,” said Markham, a Free State High School graduate who will be a KU freshman in the fall. “But it’s going to be hard if they do it every year. By the time I’m done, it’s going to be really high.”

The study, by MGT of America, a Tallahassee, Fla.-based research firm, showed that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, Kansas spent $5,988 per student at Kansas University, 74 percent of the average Big 12 university state funding. Kansas State received $6,125, or 75.7 percent of the Big 12 average.

In the Big 12, only the University of Colorado got less state funding per pupil. There the state contributed $3,350 per student.

The researchers also found that KU and Kansas State University lost ground since the last report, which was issued last year. Then, KU was at 76 percent of the Big 12 average, and KSU was at 78.9 percent.

The study also found that the percentage of the state’s budget spent on higher education has decreased from 16.3 percent in 1990 to 11.8 percent after last year’s budget cuts. It would take an additional $197 million in state funds to return to the 1990 level.

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As state funding has increased, the study found, the gap between faculty salaries in Kansas and those paid other states is widening. At KU, for example, the average professor in fiscal year 2001 made $3,590 less than the average at other Big 12 universities. In 2002, the gap jumped to $4,989.

Mary McKeown-Moak, a partner in MGT of America’s Austin, Texas, office, said she expected professors would be leaving for higher salaries elsewhere.

“Kansas is ripe for picking right now,” she said. “It’s good for those of us in Texas, because we’ll be able to recruit some of your best faculty we’ve been after for a few years.”

New group

The study was commissioned by Citizens for Higher Education, a group of business leaders and others headed by Bill Hall, president of the Hall Family Foundation in Kansas City, Mo.

The group has raised $750,000 to spend on higher education advocacy during the next three years, though Hall said plans for that advocacy hadn’t been finalized. It initially included an extensive TV and radio campaign, but Hall said he’d rather contact key leaders in communities throughout the state to have meetings and find other ways to get the message out.

“We want to win the hearts and minds of Kansans on this problem,” he said. “I think Kansans would be very surprised to learn they have the lowest per-pupil spending of the Big 12 schools. Kansas has let a great tradition slip away.”

Hall said lobbying by his group would begin for the 2004 legislative session. He said members would propose continued tuition increases paired with state funding, which he said was in line with national trends for higher tuition bills.

After recent budget cuts and tuition increases, the ratio between state funds and tuition for KU’s “general-use budget” the portion that excludes such self-funding programs as student housing and parking is closer to 55 percent state money and 45 percent tuition, said Lindy Eakin, vice provost. Previously it was 60 percent state funds, 40 percent tuition.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the study should be a wake-up call to Kansas residents not to let the slide continue.

“I don’t think the people of Kansas want to be a second-rate education system, but right now we’re funded as a second-rate system,” he said. “It’s taken some heroic efforts on the part of the institutions to make that work, but there’s only so much bailing wire left.”

The message

But selling a higher-education increase to Kansans especially those in western Kansas may be difficult.

MGT is researching the economic impact of universities, community colleges and technical schools in all 40 state Senate districts. Regent Fred Kerr, who lives in Pratt, said such local information would be important in the public relations campaign.

Kerr noted that high property taxes in communities with community colleges already were stretching budgets there. Shifting some of that burden to the state budget might be key in the quest for higher funding.

“I don’t think you can build enough of a consensus if that problem is still there,” he said. “Otherwise, there are not enough votes in terms of the public and the Legislature.”

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ spokeswoman said her office planned to review the report.

“These numbers are troubling,” Nicole Corcoran-Basso said. “The governor kept her promise and protected K through 12 and higher education last session, and she’s said many times how important education is for strengthening the state’s economy and rebounding from the economic downturn we’re in now.”

The key to higher-education funding, said Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, is a tax increase.

“Setting priorities is a very difficult process,” he said, “but I believe we should have done more for higher ed and K through 12. The way it is now, we’re mortgaging our future to avoid tax increases today.”

That tax increase would make a difference for Lawrence resident Debra Bailey, if it meant KU could back off on its tuition hikes. Bailey’s daughter, Candace, graduated from Free State High School in May and is headed to KU this fall.

While she doesn’t want to pay higher tuition for her daughter, Debra Bailey said she understood why KU was raising rates.

“They’re broke and they need more money,” she said.

Staff writer Dave Ranney contributed to this report.