Elaine Frisbee presents cost model that drives $8.8 million state-aid increase for FY2027

Elaine Frisbee, the presenter, told the Kansas Technical Education Authority budget and finance committee that applying the instructional cost model to 2025 enrollments produces a roughly $8.8 million increase in state aid for fiscal year 2027.

Frisbee described how the model breaks down costs into instructor costs, instructional support, institutional support and program‑specific (tiered) extraordinary costs. She gave per‑credit examples: a non‑tiered instructor rate of $119 per credit hour, instructional support at $55 per credit hour and institutional support at $67 per credit hour, producing a $241 per credit hour cost for non‑tiered courses. "The non tiered rate for faculty is a $119. That is per credit hour," Frisbee said.

Frisbee said the model uses reported data from the National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute and annual financial audits from the colleges. She reported the system logged about 770,000 non‑tiered credit hours that generated approximately $97,400,000 in costs and that the state share total, averaged on a three‑year rolling basis, is $78,850,000. Using the three‑year average and residency rules, Frisbee said tiered courses would require about $5,300,000 more state aid in 2027 compared with 2026 and non‑tiered courses about $3,600,000 more, "so I think 8,800,000 in total." She added that the cost model treats in‑district community college students as split one‑third each across students, property tax and state aid, while technical college students receive two‑thirds from the state and one‑third from students.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about timing and publication of the materials. Frisbee said the calculations use a three‑year rolling average and that the documents and detailed college‑level production numbers will be posted on the KBOR site for review. "This will be for fiscal year 2027, which will start July this coming July 1," Frisbee said.

The committee did not take a formal vote on funding changes at the meeting; Frisbee said the $3.6 million and $5.3 million figures are the amounts the Board of Regents would need to request from the legislature to fully adopt the cost model funding levels. She also reminded members that technical and community colleges can review their detailed numbers in the production system and that the packet will be available for the full TEA meeting in two weeks.

The committee moved on to the next agenda item without taking additional formal action on the calculations.