Gov. Matt Bevin's push to tie university funding to performance appears to have legs in the General Assembly. Senate Republicans have crafted a formula that would force schools to compete with one another for a portion of their state dollars.
The strategy outlined in the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee Tuesday incorporates a detailed funding formula based on graduation rates, retention numbers, degrees awarded, and other metrics. Schools would be placed into groupings and ranked by their scores with the winners receiving 100 percent of their funding and lower scorers taking home a fraction.
"We very much are supportive of education, but we want to make sure that we are getting the bang for the buck," Senate President Robert Stivers explained last week.
The Senate plan would only apply to a fourth of universities' state appropriation. And while the House removed outcomes-based funding from its budget, Speaker Greg Stumbo appears open to compromise - telling reporters the 25 percent proposal doesn't seem unreasonable on first blush.
"We wanted to do something. We didn't quite have a plan. They've got a plan it sounds like... and that to me indicates that there's room to reach some middle ground," he said Tuesday.
The proposal would exempt Kentucky State University.
Proponents argue the targeted funding will steer more Kentucky students toward in-demand careers and industries facing workforce shortages, but many in higher education are uneasy.
Murray State Assistant English and Philosophy Professor Andy Black says, "It seems a premium is being put on more of the hard sciences and things like that, which are obviously important. I think that's what's ultimately going to happen is that systems of assessment will be put into place that won't benefit students who want to study the humanities or other disciplines that aren't promoted by the state."
UK President Eli Capilouto has called performance-based funding "an important tool to make the university better," while stressing the need for transparency and university involvement in designing the funding formulas. Senate Pres. Stivers said the plan was crafted with input from university presidents, the Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Governor's office.
UK officials declined to comment.
