Midwestern Higher Education Compact tells Kansas committee membership saves millions, supports student programs

Susan Heegard, president of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, told the Kansas Senate Education Committee that the compact’s services produce large savings and program benefits for member states. On a $115,000 annual state investment, Heegard said the compact yields roughly a 55-fold return through multi-state agreements that reduce administrative costs, save institutions about $4.6 million through state authorization reciprocity, and deliver roughly $1.4 million in technology contract savings.

Heegard said the compact also administers turnkey procurement contracts for hardware and software (naming vendors such as Dell and Oracle) and supports programs including student health insurance contracted with UnitedHealthcare, a Midwest student exchange program and grants for open educational resources. She said Kansas received a $10,000 grant to study open educational resources and that the compact makes up to $250,000 in grants available to states for capacity-building projects.

John Berzick Dreier, vice president of policy and research, and Jane Crosby Schmidt, project manager, joined Heegard for the presentation and fielded committee questions. Heegard described the Midwestern State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) as a decade-old mechanism that lets an institution offering distance education register once rather than in every receiving state, saving both time and money for institutions and students.

The compact’s slides, Heegard said, also show Kansas tracks slightly above national averages on postsecondary attainment and that enrollment declines at public two- and four-year institutions have begun a modest uptick in 2023–24. She highlighted student migration data showing roughly 81% of Kansas students stay in state after high school and described a Census Bureau project that tracks migration and wage outcomes five and ten years after college.

Committee members thanked the compact for the briefing and asked no substantive follow-up questions before the committee moved on to scheduled bill hearings.