During the fiscal crisis and school finance crisis, Kansas’ higher education system had to wait its turn for greater legislative attention and funding. But in the meantime, as we observed in an editorial, tuition hikes have pushed more and more burden onto students and their families, and the problem of deferred maintenance projects on campuses is up to more than $600 million. A new Kansas Board of Regents study also showed that the state’s portion of tax dollars supporting higher education has declined from 49 percent in 1985 to 29 percent last year, as the portion of funding that universities get from tuition has risen from 15 percent to 23 percent.
Some lawmakers will oppose more money for higher ed — perhaps by arguing, as Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, has, that the universities have sought more independence and that employers now care less about degrees than specialized training. But as we argued, “most Kansans will see it as the state’s responsibility to give higher education the resources necessary to keep buildings in good condition and attract top professors and students.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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15 Comments
“employers now care less about degrees than specialized training”
This is true to a point… This is true for tech type jobs and maybe highly specific, highly skilled jobs but you will still have white collar type jobs that will continue to require degrees… Things like accounting, lawyers, professors, etc… degrees that require a high amount of education…
The Universities were given money several years ago for crumbling classrooms. Many of them built new facilities with that money. They have also built new facilities with money donated to the Universities but they did not put any money aside to maintain them.
Why should we give them more when they were not responsible with their money and the extra money for crumbling classrooms? We should not. The Representative makes a good point about them wanting to be more independent but now they want more money. They need to make up their minds.
They may also want to consider using some of the millions upon millions of dollars they have in endowments. They need to be responsible and stop begging more from the taxpayers when they are sitting on so much money.
sotheysaid…
u have a point… look at the private universities like Friends and Newman…
Both of which have recently undergone major renovations of old buildings and built new buildings… I kind of wonder what the percentage is spend by them on building maintenance, facilities, etc…. vs the state collages…
Universities sure put in millions in to Sport stadiums and programs.
“employers now care less about degrees than specialized training.”
I’ve found this to be exactly true. Having a degree and technical training in the military didn’t count for squat in the City of Wichita, even though civilians turned towards us to get expert advise.
When I retired from the military, I completed my education by getting a Bachelor of Science. Unfortunately, the only job I seemed qualified in Wichita was for a part time Emergency Substitute Teacher which barely paid above minimum wage. I suppose I should have gotten a degree in Education so I could milk the system some more.
Clinton years more or less killed my career field, Safety. No one really needs a Safety expert until something happens like Katrina then they want the advise for free. (degree + 22 years doing the same thing in military/safety and disaster preparedness.)
But the job thing aside, I noticed when I attended classes that the general education courses still have prerequisites that are the same as 80 years ago. English classes still adhere to MLA or a modified version of it which no one uses outside of Academia. Humanities are nice for humanities majors or Jeopardy players, but take up precious hours towards other degree plans.
My observation of the local universities are in the negative, but they need to do more to actually get students prepared for the real world. Prepardness in education means education in specialities with real world experts, technical courses and writing courses that actually does what the employers of today want.
Now where was that janitor job listing in the newspaper. Guess I better not put my degree down this time or I won’t get hired.
Honestly! It can be difficult finding a decent position that are directed towards your education and job skills.
Most people get employeed through nepotism and the buddy system. It’s basically “who you know, who you blow”.
I work for a Fortune 500 company and yes, they want certification designations to appear after your name on your resume along with 7-10 years experience or they want the Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt certifications.Each Six Sigma course to progress from Yellow Belt to Green Belt to Black Belt is 7K dollars or more.I worked hard to get my four year BS degree in Business Administration. I still have 25K in school loans to pay off and I can’t find a decent paying job in Wichita. The one I have now is paying 30K below Market Rate.In fact, the new hires at my company are being paid $4-$6 dollars an hour more to start than what the old regulars are currently making per hour. How’s that for equality in the workplace?And the Corporate BIGSHOTS want to educate us on ETHICS and INTEGRITY?????!!!!The Wichita job market has always been challenging to me because I am large woman. I am more than competent, well kept and professional along with years of diverse management experience and other strong skill sets plus my degree and it means NOTHING!It’s all about having the right Corporate Image and brown-nosing.Right now, I am the dedicated trainer for 90% of our jobs that are being offshored.The grunts and hardworking people of our company are not completely clueless, but they are second guessing whether or not they will have their jobs for much longer.
Okay, so we break the bank for court mandated k12 spending.
Now higher ed wants more – even though tuition is still low by national standards. And Kansas is in the top 10 among states in our support of higher ed.
Community colleges want to sue the state for their so-called lack of funding.
The developmentally disabled already has a lawsuit.
The highway boys are already gearing up for another round of state sponsored corporate welfare with another highway plan.
No wonder we need a taxpayer bill of rights so that Kansans at least get more of a say in whether they think we need this additional spending.
When is the last time the Eagle called for reductions in spending or reductions in increase?
Is there any spending increase the Eagle editorial board isn’t for?
But when the KU, K-State and WSU coaches are making a million dollars every year – something is wrong with that picture.
Taxpayers are tired of paying through the nose. If the sports programs want to over pay their coaches – then let them have bake sales and car washes to cover those million dollar babies.
The coaches are paid with private money raised through their chartiable athletic foundations. No tax $$.
That is okay by me. that is the market speaking.
ED Smiley! Great Post!
But I have to say the next round of highway plans and funding is necessary, so long it isn’t wasted in population declining areas of Kansas that are meant to be jobs programs for people out there.
Wichita will be needing serious upgrades and the NW Bypass. So I’m all for the next round of highway funding.
The idea behind big-money coaches is that they will create teams that generate bigger-money alumni donations. The track record on this is spotty. It can generate donations for academic and research purposes. It can alternatively only generate more money for sports programs that the donors crave. I’d say Mike Krzyzewski has done a lot to generate alumni funding for Duke’s non-athletic endowment. I don’t know if Mark Turgeon can do similarly here. Maybe he can.
What most Kansans can’t fathom is university professors making high-six-figures and even millions as tech entrepreneurs, leading textbook authors, consultants and advisory board members to startup corporations. They don’t understand that National Academies of Sciences and Engineering-member research professors teach differently from non-researchers. I was reading about some extraordinarily interesting, and profoundly important technologies in Popular Science that are being developed at MIT. The University of California leads the nation in patents. Many of them generate money that goes back to “feed” students’ minds.
Suppose that KU or KSU or a dual-university consortium developed a high-efficiency wind-generation technology, or high-efficiency solar generation technology, patented it, and issued rights to Kansan-owned companies. Impossible?Yeah, if you don’t invest to MAKE it possible, you can never achieve it. But suppose you DO invest. Even if you don’t achieve your goals entirely, you’re going to generate a lot of useful knowledge, and encourage young people to strive to make their dreams reality.
We are 5th in the country in per capita highway spending.
We do not need another highway plan.
Is our goal to be #1?
Ed Smiley! It’s because of the rural areas. We have a lot of paved roads. 4th in the Nation in the number of miles of paved roads.
Farmers want to drive their tractors and combines on paved roads, not dirt roads.
Sotheysaid–
What was the name of your nephew killed in Iraq again?
Didn’t get it last time . . .