Wichitopekington

TOPEKA – Wichita State University students will pay 8.5 percent more in tuition next school year, but university officials plan to offset the increase through an automatic scholarship.

The increase, approved Thursday by the Board of Regents along with tuition jumps for all state universities, is higher than the 6 percent WSU had proposed in May.

With the augmentation, a full-time in-state WSU student will pay $2,248.50 per semester for classes. The automatic scholarship, funded by federal stimuli money, will apply only to in-state students, said WSU President Donald Beggs.

University of Kansas students will pay $3,283.50 for a semester’s tuition, up 6 percent from the current $3,097.50.

KU students enrolling in the school’s compact program which guarantees the same tuition rate over four year will increase to 7 percent to $3,679.50 up from the current $3,438.75

Kansas State University tuition will increase 3.9 percent to $3,093, up from $2,977.05.

Emporia State University has a small raise to $1,713 up 4 percent from this years $1,647 rate.

Pittsburgh State University students will pay $1,826, up 6.8 percent from $1,710.

Fort Hays State University tuition will jump 7.5 percent to $1,473, up from the current $1,370.25 per semester.

TOPEKA – “Welcome to my first actual blog,” wrote Gov. Mark Parkinson yesterday.

In the post Parkinson, a Democrat, said he decided to start blogging when he became governor at the end of April “to provide you a glimpse of what it is like to serve as Governor and to give insight into what happens in our office every day.”

The blog comes up with the governor’s website.

In the mostly biographical initial offer Parkinson promised he’d be the one writing the posts, “this isn’t something that a staffer is writing to try to make me look good.”

He also promised he, and other posters, would try not to be boring or politically correct and “we’ll try not to use political speak (lots of words that say nothing, but sound good).”

TOPEKA – Seven Sedgwick County health clinics received more than $1.2 million from the state to help provide primary health care to undeserved Kansans.

Tuesday, Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced the grants, ranging from $17,872 to $453,517, to 39 clinics through out Kansas.

“The services these clinics provide are critically important, making available needed health care services for families without health insurance or those who cannot afford the high cost of care,” said KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby.

In 2008, nearly 180,000 Kansans received health care at a state-funded primary care clinic, the department said in the release. Nearly 60 percent of these patients were uninsured, and over 65 percent were in households that earn less than the federal poverty level.

Area clinics receiving grants were:

• Center for Health and Wellness, Inc. $105,00 for primary care, $15,000 for prescription assistance

• E.C. Tyree Health and Dental Clinic, $80,000 for primary care

• Good Samaritan Clinic, $88,400 for primary care, $12,000 for prescription assistance

• GraceMed Health Clinic, Inc., $350,000 for primary care, $40,000 for prescription assistance

• Guadalupe Clinic, $80,000 for primary care, $20,000 for prescription assistance

• Health Options for Kansas Communities, $50,000 for primary care, $12,000 for prescription assistance

• Hunter Health Clinic, $320,000 for primary care, $40,000 for prescription assistance.

For more, read Wednesday’s Wichita Eagle.