Do you remember hearing about lawmakers taking the challenge to live off what a typical food stamp recipient gets through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program? It's a dramatic if misleading way to help people understand the challenges one might face if he's depending on government assistance.
A hunger advocacy group once put the average daily allocation for SNAP recipients at $4.50 and recruited lawmakers to try living off that. Now, for illustration purposes, let's say a president comes into office pledging he (or, in 2016 terms, maybe she) has the solution. The president sets out to revamp the rules about how the money is distributed and, after exhaustive study and revisions, the new daily total allocation for SNAP recipients will be ... $4.50.
Does that change anything?
That's my first take on the new funding framework for the state's public colleges and universities approved by the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday. It's still a broad outline; the governor, speaker of the House and Senate pro tem must also approve it before state higher ed officials can begin drafting a bill for the General Assembly to consider next year.
Hutchinson backs the concept, which attempts to tie funding of higher education institutions to their level of success in actually producing students with degrees or industry-recognized certificates. He said last week the new formula will emphasize accountability, student success and degree completion.
Historically, colleges and universities have received state funding based on enrollment, which can perhaps be said to be a measure of an institution's quality, but not nearly as much as measuring a school's ability to contribute graduates to the Arkansas workforce.
The goal is to sharpen institutions' focus on helping students achieve education rather than just rewarding colleges for the number of warm bodies they happen to attract.
Now, the question becomes how to do all that without enticing higher learning institutions to lean toward reduced grading standards in the name of handing enrollees a piece of paper. Or to prevent a reaction that makes it more difficult for moderate-level students to gain admission, for fear their lack of success will translate into a college's reduction in funding.
But back to my opening about the food stamp program. Part of Arkansas' problem in higher education isn't just in how they carve up the funding pie, but in how big that pie is to begin with.
State funding for higher education has largely remained unchanged for a decade or more. That, to a large degree, is because lawmakers have other funding mandates that take priority. For example, the famed Lakeview School District decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court found the state had violated its own constitution by its inadequate and inequitable funding of K-12 public schools. That really puts primary and secondary education first in line when it comes to annual state budgets. Other services like prisons and Human Services (adoptions, foster children, elder care, etc.) take a few bites out of that pie, too.
In short, higher education has largely been on its own as far as any major increases in funding. That's driven big pushes to increase enrollments, which brings in more tuition and other fees, and for private fund-raising.
But maybe there's hope on that front. Some state officials say an outcomes-based evaluation for higher education institutions is a prerequisite before some lawmakers will even consider increasing the level of funding for colleges and universities. Some are skeptical of shoveling more money into a system until they're comfortable it's more accountable.
"I think that it is a good way for higher education to illustrate to policymakers and the public that we have no problem with being held accountable," Arkansas State University President Chuck Welch said in Saturday's newspaper. "We have no problem with being judged on the results of our work, and really, it will set us apart in that I'm not sure there's any other state agency or entity that is judged or funded based on their outcomes. And I don't think that's a bad thing."
If the outcomes-based funding is what's needed to get the state Legislature back into a mindset of funding higher education in Arkansas, I'd say it's desperately needed. No organization can continually deny some of its greatest assets the kind of funding increase necessary to produce quality work yet still expect them to achieve great things.
Commentary on 08/01/2016