Council on Postsecondary Education

Aaron Thompson (left), president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, asks a question Nov. 15, 2018,, November 15, 2018, next to council chair Sherrill Zimmerman at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. Bac Totrong/[email protected]

After a decade of decline that has resulted in a 21 percent cut in state spending on public colleges and universities, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education is asking lawmakers to reinvest in higher education next year.

Ahead of a legislative session that will result in a new two-year state budget, the CPE has requested that lawmakers invest $52.5 million in 2020-21 and $75 million in 2021-22.

The money would be placed in Kentucky’s performance funding system, which ties university funding to deliverable outcomes, like credit hour accumulation and graduation rate. The system is now in its third year of implementation.

For CPE President Aaron Thompson, it’s a no-frills request for state funding.

“We’re asking for meat and potatoes here,” Thompson told the Daily News. “We’re not asking for dessert.”

According to the CPE, the total operating funds request amounts to a 6.2 percent increase in the first year and an 8.8 percent increase in the second year.

Thompson said additional investment from the state is needed to sustain gains in degree production universities are making, even in the face of budget cuts.

“We’re down to the bone,” Thompson said, encouraging lawmakers to think of postsecondary education as the “engine” for long-term economic growth in the state. “This is really investing in the future of Kentucky,” he said.

The second part of the CPE’s state funding request aims to chip away at a $7 billion need for campus maintenance. The request calls for $400 million in state bonds matched with $200 million of campus funds.

“The need is so dire,” said Bill Payne, the CPE’s vice president of finance and administration.

According to Payne, the funds can only be used for renovation and renewal projects for facilities that support instruction, research and public service. A number of campuses are falling behind on essential maintenance projects, including roof replacements, HVAC fixes and improvements to roads and sidewalks.

With multiple rounds of state spending cuts, universities have endured skyrocketing pension obligation costs for their employees. WKU hasn’t been insulated from those issues.

In June 2018, a combination of enrollment decline, state spending cuts and fixed cost increases prompted the university to cut $27 million in spending and eliminate almost 150 positions, 72 of which were filled.

Since 2008, the cost of higher education in Kentucky has fallen increasingly on students’ shoulders, with rising student debt and universities passing on the cost in the form of tuition increases.

A recent report from the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that average tuition at public universities in Kentucky grew by nearly 40 percent between 2008 and 2018 after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, median household income for Kentuckians has leveled off for almost two decades.

Students’ debt levels have also risen, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. A recent brief compiled by the center showed that students graduating with debt (both public and private) jumped from 52 percent to 64 percent between 2004 and 2017. The average debt load also increased from $14,250 to $28,447.

Despite state spending cuts, the Council on Postsecondary Education says Kentucky’s higher education institutions are making gains in degree production.

It recently announced in a news release that the state’s public and private colleges and universities “conferred a record 76,380 degrees and credentials during the 2018-19 year, up nearly 5 percent from the previous year and 39 percent from 10 years ago.”

According to the CPE, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded annually by public and private schools has risen from 22,041 in 2014-15 to 23,666 in 2018-19, amounting to a 7 percent increase over that five-year span.

Still, CPE officials say that growth won’t last without additional investment from the state. In the first few years of Kentucky’s higher education performance funding system, lawmakers have not invested any new funding, Payne said.

“We’ve got to have new dollars,” he said.

– Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.