Who wants performance-based funding and why? Answering those questions is important if we wish to defend funding formulas that support high-quality education.
By Michael K. McLendon and James C. Hearn
Observers of higher education policy might be forgiven a sense of surprise at recent developments in the funding of state higher education systems. At the turn of the century, after indifferent results and occasional policy debacles, it was easy to find commentary from chastened proponents on the declining commitments to performance-based funding and budgeting systems for public higher education. It seemed high time to add the performance-funding approach to the moldering remains of zero-based budgeting, quality circles, six-sigma, and numerous other “good policy ideas gone bad.”
Yet in recent years, performance funding has risen from the near dead, returning forcefully to the policy and political agendas of many states. What factors have driven this interest in performance-based funding for higher education? In light of the already high—and still rising—importance of state performance-funding approaches to the financing of public higher education in the United States, understanding the factors responsible for the growth of these policy “reforms” seems vital as well.
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