Presentation urges Kansas to centralize outreach to 413,000 adults with "some college, no credential"

Tara Cruz, CEO of ReUp Education, told a joint Senate-House education committee on an unspecified date that about 413,000 Kansas residents have "some college, no credential" and urged a statewide, centralized outreach and re-enrollment effort to help those adults finish credentials and re-enter the workforce.

Cruz said the national population with some college but no credential totals about 41,000,000 people and described the group as “often ignored” in current policy approaches. She said Kansas’s population in that category grows by roughly 10,000 people per year and that the state currently spends an estimated $90,000,000 annually subsidizing education for learners who stop out before earning a credential.

ReUp’s proposal centers on a state-level, centralized model that aggregates institutions’ historical databases of stopout students, appends contact information, and conducts large-scale, persona-driven outreach using text, email and coaching to help adults re-enroll and persist to completion. “Every one of your schools has very large databases of people who started but didn't finish,” Cruz said. “They're not outreaching them unless they've been out for less than a year, by and large.”

Why it matters: Cruz framed the effort as both an enrollment strategy and a workforce intervention. She said roughly 15,000 Kansas residents enroll each year in out-of-state online programs — “$100,000,000 in Kansas dollars that are being funneled to other states,” she said — and argued many of those learners would be better served by in-state institutions. Cruz also cited workforce gaps, saying the most recent data she referenced showed “about 51 skilled workers for every 100 jobs in Kansas.”

Program details and examples: Cruz described ReUp’s work in other states as a model for Kansas. She said New Jersey’s centralized database reached about 260,000 people and re-enrolled about 11,000 over 24 months, returning an estimated $44,000,000 in tuition dollars to state-system schools. North Carolina, she said, re-enrolled about 3,700 learners in its early 24-month pilot and returned about $23,000,000 in tuition dollars to participating four-year institutions. Cruz estimated that, with current capabilities, ReUp could expect about 10% of an entered database to return over five years (about 40,000 of 413,000, she said).

Privacy and governance: In response to a question from Senator Shane on student privacy, Cruz said ReUp is “fully FERPA compliant,” that the company performs annual audits and that data reported to states is anonymized and aggregated. “We do not share it out, like we may share aggregate data ... but we do not monetize the data in any other way,” she said.

Institutional participation and costs: Cruz said institutions sign data-sharing agreements and must agree to accept students from the program; she said ReUp does not require changes to admission standards. On compensation, she described two models: revenue sharing for individual-institution contracts and a flat annual fee when partnering at the state level, which she said typically lowers per-student costs and leverages economies of scale.

Questions and follow-ups: Committee members asked about program mechanics, diagnostic profiling, staff dedicated to a Kansas rollout, credit transfer, and local examples. Representative Haskins asked about Emporia State University's participation; Cruz said Emporia State is a relatively new partner and she would follow up with data. Representative Haskins also requested sources for specific slides; Cruz and the committee said they would provide those references as a follow-up.

No formal action or vote was recorded during the meeting; committee members expressed interest and asked ReUp to supply additional documentation and case-study data for follow-up consideration.