Kansas lawmakers hear higher-education funding requests; Regents warn of literacy and cybersecurity risks

Dr. Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that the board is narrowing its budget request to a few sector priorities and asked the Legislature to preserve and restore funding for two‑year college formulas, technical high‑school enrollments under Senate Bill 155 and campus restoration money the House removed.

Flanders said the coordinated system recommends fully funding two‑year college formulas and increasing the state pay‑plan shortfall for employees. He urged protection of student‑success and need‑based funding and said the system faces repeated cybersecurity attacks. “We are attacked on a daily basis with cybersecurity,” Flanders said. He also urged continued funding for the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy, which was cut in the House; “There’s a storm coming,” he said. “Because if you don't read well, it's gonna be hard to participate in the economy.”

Julie Mazachek, president of Washburn University, described Washburn as a municipal, open‑access university that receives local support in addition to state funds. She said Washburn’s recent demolition and repurposing of buildings will reduce campus square footage by about 61,000 square feet, lowering future operating costs, and thanked the committee for a $3 million ARPA allocation that allowed the university to buy and redevelop a vacant property for manufacturing programs. Mazachek asked that the municipal operating grant be increased to help Washburn serve a growing enrollment — she reported a 27% rise in freshman class size in the most recent year and overall undergraduate growth of 15% over two years — and emphasized the importance of the Kansas Comprehensive Grant for low‑income students.

Greg Nichols, president of Salina Tech, and Heather Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Community College Association, urged restoration of technical and community college operating grants and continued support for industry training programs. Nichols asked that a base operating grant for technical colleges be restored to $10.5 million after the House trimmed it to $7 million. Morgan said community and technical colleges are seeing enrollment increases, including noncredit and industry training students not captured in some state reports, and that colleges face waiting lists in high‑demand programs because of limits on equipment, space and faculty.

Matt Lindsey, president of the Kansas Independent College Association, said independent nonprofit colleges serve nearly 23,000 students — about 12% of college students in Kansas — and urged predictable, forward‑funded appropriations for the Kansas Comprehensive Grant, the state’s need‑based aid program. Lindsey asked the committee to continue using the comprehensive grant as the primary tool for affordability and to restore the prior practice of including next fiscal year student‑aid funding in the current budget so institutions can make offers to students with known aid levels.

Committee members pressed witnesses on 10‑year spending trends, distinctions between all‑funds and State General Fund increases, and details of newer student financial‑aid lines created in recent years. Flanders said some recent increases reflect new programs and expanded scholarships and that he would follow up with detailed breakdowns.

At the end of the hearing staff reported that, after floor action in the House and adjustments carried into the committee's working documents, two items for higher education remained in the current version of House Bill 2007: $5,000,000 for community college capital outlay aid and $3,300,000 for the Washburn municipal operating grant. Committee staff said other Board of Regents items in the House package had been removed in that draft.

The testimony illustrated competing near‑term needs — capital repairs and campus consolidation, new and expanding workforce programs, cyber defenses, and continued student aid and literacy investments — and recurring themes that committee members said they will weigh as they consider amendments and provisos in coming days.