Kansas Board of Regents President Blake Flanders says Kansas is facing the prospect of a “brain drain” as fewer people who graduate from a Kansas college or university choose to stay in the state.

It’s unclear whether people are leaving because the higher education system is failing to align itself with the Kansas economy, or whether the local economy is failing to offer the opportunities college graduates seek.

Flanders addressed the board Wednesday during its annual retreat, which was held in Wichita.

Flanders said that from 2010 to 2014 the percentage of Kansas college graduates employed in Kansas within one year of finishing school has remained relatively flat. But he said the number employed here five years after graduating has been declining.

—

Associated Press information from: the Lawrence Journal-World