Enrollment numbers at the state’s institutions of higher learning was released Thursday.
Considering we’re emerging from a global pandemic, the news is reaffirming. Compared to last year, enrollment is down only 1 percent for those who attend the state’s seven universities, 19 community colleges and seven technical colleges.
That’s quite a rebound from fall 2020, when a majority of colleges saw precipitous drops in enrollment.
The five-year trend, however, isn’t as rosy.
Overall, the percentage of Kansas high school graduates who choose to go to college has been steadily declining. In 2020, about 45 percent of high school graduates enrolled in college, down 9.3 percent over the past five years.
State universities have seen an average 6 percent decline in enrollment and community colleges a 15.5 percent decline. Allen Community College went from an enrollment of 2,574 in 2017 to a student population of 2,113 in 2020, a 23 percent decline. Only technical programs have increased enrollment, by a whopping 15 percent.
Statewide, attendance at our universities is 95,000; community colleges, 60,000; and technical colleges, 10,000.
Sadly, students from rural areas such as Allen County are increasingly missing out on such opportunities. Students ages 10-24 comprise almost 30 percent of rural Kansas. Of those, only about 15 percent, go on to college.
INCREASINGLY, the onus is on administrators to prove the value of a college education as its costs continue to spiral upward.
Who is behind those rising costs? For the most part, state legislators.
Since 2008, when the Great Recession took hold, the state has cut funding to higher education by about 20 percent, and even more since the pandemic. Today, Kansas spends $1,588 less per student than in 2008.
In 2008, average tuition to a public four-year university was $6,751 a year. Today, it’s almost $9,000, an increase of about 28 percent.
Community colleges are in the same boat. In Kansas, tuition at our two-year schools has increased almost 36 percent in the last five years.
And that’s not the complete picture. The average net price of attending college, including room and board, fees, books and supplies, accounts for 28 percent of a median household income.
It used to be that students — through tuition — provided about a quarter of public colleges’ and universities’ revenue, while state and local governments provided the remaining three-quarters. Today, that split is much closer to 50-50.
