Presentation outlines strategy to re‑enroll Kansans with 'some college, no credential'

Scott Lomas, identified as chief strategy officer at ReUp, told the board that roughly 41,000,000 Americans have some college but no credential and that Kansas has about 400,000 such adults. He described a three‑part model for reengagement—student incentives (scholarships/debt relief), institutional wraparound supports (coaching and services), and centralized outreach/marketing—and urged a statewide, student‑centric coordination given transfer behavior and competition from large online providers.

"There are 41,000,000 people in our country today who have some college and no credentials," Lomas said, noting the Kansas figure and that capturing even a fraction of that population would materially affect workforce pipelines and institutional revenues. He estimated roughly $150,000,000 in FTE‑equivalent state appropriation lost to stopouts last year and suggested institution‑level tuition opportunity might approach $80,000,000 if re‑enrollment efforts are successful.

Board members asked about persistence rates (Lomas cited ~54% persistence for students re‑enrolling a year later) and about partnerships with workforce agencies to align programs with job demand; Lomas said ReUp works closely with state workforce agencies to curate workforce‑aligned program offerings. The presenter also noted competition from national online institutions with large advertising budgets and recommended a centralized data and outreach function at the state level to aggregate stop‑out lists, segment students, and coordinate reenrollment.