While Frankfort lawmakers debate state university funding, diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and other academic issues, Aaron Thompson wants Kentuckians to know there’s good news to report about higher education in the commonwealth.
For example, Kentucky had the highest overall enrollment gains in postsecondary education of any state in the nation, according to National Student Clearinghouse data for fall 2022 to fall 2023. Kentucky saw 5.6 percent growth in overall college and university enrollment – a full percentage point better than the second-best state.
“We were the first state to actually bounce back in enrollment from COVID.” says Thompson, who is president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. “The things that we put in place – policies, process, and actions – actually worked,”
What’s more, Thompson says, retention, completions, and graduation rates are up at state schools, and student debt has decreased by $4,500 per student per year. The state is also on track to meet the goal of having 60 percent of Kentuckians with a college degree or certification by the year 2030. The rate is now 55 percent.
Thompson attributes these successes to the hard work and collaborative efforts of council staff, the state’s public colleges and universities, and political leaders in Frankfort.
“The General Assembly and the governor’s office play an important part in that to do healthy bills,” he says, “to do items such as give us the budget that helps us to really focus strategically on what this state needs.”
Touting the Value of a Postsecondary Education
Thompson says his initial review of the new state budget proposed by House Republicans shows a 4 percent increase in base funding for higher education as well additional moneys to help schools cover higher insurance costs and asset maintenance and management needs. He says CPE will ask the Senate to increase that allocation as well as the appropriation for performance-based funding, which rewards schools for improving a number of student and academic metrics. He says state funding is crucial to helping students and families pay the costs of attending college.
“We don’t feel like parents and family members and students can afford to pay more tuition, so this is where the state, we hope, will invest in us,” he says.
Part of Thompson’s case to lawmakers is based on a return-on-investment study CPE conducted that followed Kentucky high school graduates through the next eight years of their lives. While those who only graduate high school may land a decent job, Thompson says they will need some kind of higher education credential to more fully advance their careers.
Those young people who do go on to earn a baccalaureate degree will make $1.4 million more in their working lives than those who only have a high school diploma. He says people with a certification or two- or four-year degree also are less likely to need public benefits like Medicaid and SNAP, lead healthier lifestyles, and are generally happier.
Thompson says all of that proves the value of taxpayer-supported higher education.
“For every dollar that the state puts in, the state gets a $67 return on investment for that person,” he says. “You will not find a better deal in the country.”
DEI Policies Under Scrutiny
Beyond the funding priorities, higher ed advocates fear other legislation before the General Assembly could derail the gains made by state colleges and universities.
Bills proposed by GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate would restrict so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that are meant to address historic inequities in public education. In addition to ending DEI offices and training programs, schools could not have scholarships based on the applicant’s sex or race.
Schools would also be barred from promoting “divisive concepts” such as saying the state is fundamentally racist, or that a person of a given sex or race is inherently privileged. Institutions found to be in violation of the proposed requirements could be penalized up to $100,000 for non-compliance. The DEI bills filed here are similar to legislation recently passed by state lawmakers in Florida and Texas.
Thompson says that forcing a student or employee to subscribe to a divisive concept or political ideology is not part of public higher education in the commonwealth. He says college is about learning how to think for oneself, not being told what to believe.
“The DEI policy that we have to talk about that diversity of thought is about the highest level of critical thinking,” he says. “You learn more from people different than you than from people like you.”
Further, Thompson contends the current DEI efforts help the state colleges and universities close achievement gaps among and better serve underrepresented student populations.
“We have to meet the students where they’re at,” he says. “We don’t do that based purely on race. We do it based on their ability to socially, emotionally, culturally, and academically achieve at the highest level possible.”
Should one of the DEI bills become law, Thompson wonders how alleged violations would be investigated and substantiated as well as how legal fees for the schools would be funded. He says state colleges and universities are more than willing to address issues that need to be fixed, but he fears these measures could slow the important gains higher education is making in Kentucky.
“The last thing we need to do is actually get to the point where anything goes to reverse the progress that we’re making academically,” says Thompson. “That’s not anything that I hope that our legislature or anybody else would bring to the table.”
