By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas House higher education budget committee didn’t wait for start of the 2026 legislative session to take a dive into millions of dollars in pending budget requests for public universities.
Rep. Adam Turk, a Shawnee Republican who chairs the committee, convened Republicans and Democrats during what he referred to as “zero week” rather than await start of the session Monday. The objective was to get a jumpstart on presentations and discussions about budget earmarks for Wichita State University, Kansas State University, University of Kansas, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg State University and Emporia State University.
The Legislature’s interim budget committee previously rejected in late 2024 a series of proposals for university budget enhancements and hiring new campus personnel. In addition, that joint House and Senate budget committee said unused funding in current budgets could be seized and reappropriated in the new budget.
At this stage, administrators at the six state universities in Kansas began making sales pitches to the Republican-led House higher education budget committee for possible restoration of their requests.
“It is my intent to bring a quality product to the next level,” Turk said. “We can’t afford it to be unclear or indecisive or arbitrary in any way. I graduated from none of these institutions. I’ve got no dog in this hunt. You won’t see me playing favorites. Nothing is personal in here. It is math.”
Lawrence Rep. Mike Amyx, the ranking Democrat on the higher education committee, said he would focus on developing a budget plan that invested in delivery of a high-quality college education.
“Do everything we can to come out with the best budget,” Amyx said.
During the day’s committee meeting, PSU President Thomas Newsom, FHSU President Tisa Mason and interim ESU President Taylor Kriley shared budget and enrollment information with legislators. They outlined arguments for legislative support of individual budget requests.
Comments from several lawmakers indicated the focus of the House committee would be on decreasing state government spending on higher education.
“I see a lot of expansion, new stuff,” said Turk, the chairman. “It’s real easy to build something new. Really hard … to find the things that are not working anymore, cut them off.”
Newsom, who started in September at PSU after leading Southeastern Oklahoma State University for five years, said higher education needed to do a better job of deleting weak programs as it went about directing resources into promising programs. He said regional public universities such as PSU had to concentrate on making efficient use of public and private funding as well as being responsive to student and industry demands.
“We tend to add new toys to the toy box a lot without getting rid of old toys,” Newsom said.
He said PSU’s goal was to attract 700 new students over the next five years, which could infuse $6 million in tuition revenue into the university.
Mason, who has served as president of FHSU since 2018, said the university had the lowest tuition and fee rate among public universities in Kansas. FHSU successfully launched affiliation agreements with North Central Kansas Technical College and Northwest Kansas Technical College to create better academic pathways for students, find operational efficiencies and better serve the region’s economy.
“We view ourselves as an engine for social mobility,” she said. “Proving that a premium education doesn’t have to come with a premium price tag.”
Mason was asked for enrollment and financial information about FHSU’s online degree programs with two universities in China. FHSU last fall enrolled 3,000 students from China in English, business, leadership and health studies programs. The international students generated about $9 million in annual revenue, she said, but net revenue runs about $5 million per year. The funds were plowed into the FHSU campus in Hays, she said.
Rep. Bill Rhiley, a Republican from Wellington, said influx of tuition dollars from international programs had successfully subsidized tuition rates for Kansans attending FHSU. Mason concurred with Rhiley, and called that revenue a “game changer” in terms of tuition affordability.
Mason said FHSU students in China were linked to an IT system based in Singapore. A cybersecurity firm was hired FHSU to improve online computer systems, she said. Participants in the China program didn’t engage in academic research that could be the subject of espionage, she said.
“They’re highly vetted and they’re very established partnerships,” Mason said. “The geopolitical environment has changed in 30 years. I appreciate the question.”
Turk said nobody on the House committee was questioning the commitment at FHSU to guarantee security of the program with China. He told Mason it was impossible to predict how international relationships could unfold years from now.
“I don’t mean to beat you up about this China thing,” he said. “The nature of my question is simply how to plan for the worst. We wouldn’t be doing our job if we weren’t projecting, as budget members, into the future.”
The House committee also heard budget presentations from representatives of the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board, Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, Kansas State Historical Society and Kansas State Library.