Ball State could receive the lowest amount of performance-based funding among public state universities, according to documents released by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
In its recommendation to the State Budget Association Tuesday, CHE proposed a new plan for funding allocation. Overall funding for higher education will remain about the same, but 5 percent of it will be reallocated based on performance in three key areas: total degree attainment change compared to the previous year, total completion of credit hours and research incentive.
Governor Mitch Daniels will consider the CHE's recommendations, as well as the Revenue Forecast released today, when determining higher education funding this spring. According to CHE's formula, Ball State would receive $851,607 in performance-based funding for each of the next two school years. This represents 1.4 percent of the total performance-based funding.
By contrast, CHE recommended that Ivy Tech Community College receive almost $22 million, or 35.5 percent of performance-based funding. Jason Bearce, a communication official with CHE, said Ball State scored well in successful completion of credit hours and number of incoming students with dual credits from high school, but it had fewer students complete their degree on time and fewer low-income graduates than other state colleges.
"We're not taking money away, but we are trying to incentivize colleges to use the money they have more effectively," Bearce said.
Indiana provides about $1.7 billion in funding for higher education annually, according to a CHE press release. That's about 13 percent of the state's total operating budget. More than $123 million, or about 5 percent, of higher education funding will be used for the performance-based portion of the state's funding formula, more than three times the amount set aside for this purpose during the last two-year budget cycle.
"We didn't want to move too quickly toward performance-based funding," Bearce said. "We're really trying to push our colleges to be as effective [with funding] as possible."
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