Legislators work to fund education budget - Anna Archibald, Kansan.com

The state of Kansas is continuing to play a balancing game in an effort to bridge the existing $400,000 budget gap in higher education. This year’s higher education budget of $747 million is at the same level it was in 2006. For the next fiscal year, Gov. Mark Parkinson recommended an increase of $10 million to the budget, which would bring the higher education budget to $757 million in 2011. Parkinson said in a press release that he expected the expenditure rate for the University of Kansas in 2011 to be more than $742 million. The money for higher education in Kansas comes from a variety of sources in addition to state funding. In 2008, only 22 percent of revenue came from state appropriations. The University supplements its budget with money from tuition and fees and from private donations.