Panel backs appointment of 3 to board that leads colleges sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kansas needs to boost funding for public higher education or else risk jeopardizing federal COVID-19 aid to public schools and universities, officials warned in a memo to legislators Monday.
The warning from Budget Director Adam Proffitt comes as legislators wade through a heated debate over how to fund K-12 education.
Republican legislators acknowledge the risk that exists to federal relief for both public K-12 education and the state’s colleges and universities.
“I think it is going to be a problem,” Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said.
Billions at stake as legislators search for solutions
Kansas legislators are in the waning days of sorting out the state budget for the coming fiscal years, but much like college students ahead of finals have left some of the hardest work for last.
Much of the spending blueprint has been locked in. Gov. Laura Kelly signed the $20 billion budget bill Monday, opting to keep the core elements of the document intact although she did opt to use her line-item veto powers on more than a dozen items.
That includes language giving legislators power over appropriating federal COVID-19 relief funds, a move to lift the moratorium on admissions at the state s psychiatric hospitals and a provision requiring state agencies and contractors to use E-Verify.