Performance-based college funding considered at education summit

Funding based on graduations rather than enrollment could be a good idea for Illinois state colleges and universities, members of a commission studying the issue agreed Tuesday.

But the big question that everyone recognized would be how to serve at-risk students - those with a lesser chance of graduating because of income, academic background, age or minority status.

"There are challenges that we know and challenges we don't know," said State Rep. Fred Crespo of Streamwood, House sponsor of the bill that established the Higher Education Finance Study Commission to propose options for aligning funding of colleges and universities with state goals.

Crespo, who thinks performance-based funding should be proposed for a future budget, was encouraged by the reaction from the panel, which included representatives of teachers' organizations and universities. He said he had been warned by groups including the African-American and Latino legislative caucuses that there will be opposition. The plan would not need to be punitive against schools that traditionally fail to graduate a high percentage of students, he said.

Successes at community colleges like Harper, which hosted the meeting, are more difficult to judge than at four-year universities, said Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.

Fingerhut told the commission about the formulas being used for the second year in Ohio, one of the few states to adopt performance-based state funding. The idea is that four-year universities are rewarded financially for students who complete classes and who graduate.

Community colleges, on the other hand, will receive 5 percent of their funding based on the number of students taking significant steps, an idea that originated in Washington State. The percentage of funding that takes the steps into consideration is expected to increase each year.

These steps include progressing from remedial courses to college-level ones; earning 15, then 30, semester hours by a certain time; earning 15 hours and enrolling in four-year schools; and earning associate degrees.

Community colleges are more complicated to evaluate because the economic downturn has caused years of double-digit percentage growth in populations.

Students at these schools also vary widely from those taking a single course or seeking a certificate to those who want an associate degree or to transfer to a university. And these schools are more likely to receive underprepared students, especially those who are older and are returning to school.

Fingerhut said successful at-risk students gather more financial credit for their schools, and defining this group requires continual study.

Fingerhut in a written statement explained why he believes performance-based funding makes sense. "Large numbers of drop outs or dropped courses represent the ultimate in financial inefficiency," he said. "And it is just plain wrong to take students' tuition dollars, or encourage them to go into debt, to take courses that experience and data suggests they have a high likelihood of not completing."

The Illinois commission was formed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and expects to submit a final report by Dec. 1.