WICHITA — Consider the mounting money problems facing public universities in Kansas.
Decades of ballooning tuition have made students and their families increasingly worried about college debt. Tech schools offer cheaper, faster paths to a solid job. Help from taxpayers has waned.
Then came the pandemic. Campuses had to spend heavily to retool for safety during the outbreak. Still, large numbers of students and the money they would have spent on dorms, tuition and the like stayed away.
The University of Kansas predicted over the summer that it would only come up short — by a full 25% — on the money needed to cover its costs.