Tuition at the six state universities will rise in the fall because the state Legislature didn’t fund them adequately.
As the increases were announced, Regent Tim Emert of Independence said he wasn’t surprised. University expenses, utility bills and health insurance premiums in particular, have been rising and the bills must be paid. “Where else do we have to go?” he asked.
The consequence for students at KU, for example, will be an increase of $675 a semester — from $9,075 to $9,750. In addition, living costs for students will also rise. Similar increases will be required in the other five.
The pinch-penny philosophy which now guides Kansas government will have two results: one, to prevent another segment of Kansas high school and community college graduates from attending a regents university this year; the other, to keep the six Kansas universities from striving to reach higher standards.
Unfortunately, the damage done won’t have commensurate political consequences: The number of Kansas voters who will be directly affected don’t make much of a pressure group. Underfunding the universities and making up part of the difference with higher tuition goes easy on elected officials because it shifts the cost from the taxpayers to the students and their families — a much smaller batch of voters.
And it will be years before poor-boying higher education in Kansas makes Kansas a poorer state in so many other ways. A cynical set of values, to be sure, but when cutting taxes is the ultimate political goal altruism becomes a cardinal sin.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
