Saturday afternoon, more than 300 young graduates will walk across the stage of White Auditorium to collect either their technical certificates or an associate’s degree as part of spring commencement activities for Flint Hills Technical College.
During the most recent installment of KVOE’s Tech Talk, FHTC President Dr. Caron Daugherty stated that those individuals will also be significantly increasing their life earnings, noting that skilled technical workers of all disciplines are and always will be in high demand.
While the college is in high spirits, celebrating the accomplishments of this year’s graduating class, Dr. Daugherty noted there are some difficult conversations ahead for the college following the latest Kansas Legislative Session, which wrapped up last month. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a budget that reduced funding for the Excel in Career Technical Education (CTE) initiative by $10 million.
The initiative provides tuition-free college technical courses for high school students. With this in mind, Daugherty says the college is anticipating a downtick in high school student enrollment for the coming year on top of a forecasted $900,000 loss in funding, which is nearly 10 percent of the college’s $11 million budget.
Given all of this information, Daugherty stated the college is in for a “rough summer” with many discussions needing to be had, namely on planning for the upcoming budget cycle. According to Daugherty, leadership is currently working with three budget models and has been looking into alternative scholarship funding options to help offset the impact that the reduction in Excel funding is set to have.
On top of the discussions on new scholarship opportunities, the college already has several longstanding aid options, including through the Kansas Promise Act, which has been awarded for several years now. The scholarship, according to Director of Financial Aid Troy Hobleman, helps to cover all costs of tuition and fees billed through the college once all “gift aid” has been applied.
The Promise Act is just one of more than 70 scholarship opportunities available through FHTC, according to Hobleman.
For more information on scholarship opportunities or if you are interested in enrolling at FHTC, visit FHTC.edu or call the college directly at 620-343-4600.
