Kansas Universities Brace for State Cuts to Program Funding

The relentless push to shrink government and cut taxes could trigger tuition hikes and mean less state money for a program that provides aviation companies with work-ready employees.

Competing versions of budget cuts from the House and Senate both include reductions in state aid for universities, a move that could add to ever-increasing tuition rates.

Meanwhile, the National Center for Aviation Training in Wichita, essentially a tech college built primarily by Sedgwick County to produce work-ready employees for aircraft manufacturers, is poised to lose $2 million of the $5 million it has become accustomed to receiving from the state.

Those cuts also would pluck $2 million each in funding from cancer research at the University of Kansas and animal health research at Kansas State University.

Legislators also considered a proposal to cut $2 million from the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University, but decided against the cuts.