Proposed Higher Education Funding Formula Released Today

A joint House-Senate panel is recommending performance play a role in how much money Missouri’s colleges and universities get from the state each year. 

On Monday, panel members released a proposed higher education funding formula, which would include performance measurement in such things as student enrollment, the number of research programs, and public service to the surrounding community or state. 

“Will it generate interest? You bet," says GOP Senator David Pearce, who chairs the Joint Committee on Education. "But at the end of the day we can’t just look at one line item for one individual institution, we have to look at it as it effects the entire state – and so that’s one thing that we’re gonna try to work through this legislative process."

Public comments on the proposal will be accepted through next Monday, February 11th. 

Meanwhile, Governor Jay Nixon announced Monday that he’s reversed almost all of the 9-million-dollars he cut from Higher Education last year when he signed the current state budget into law.  He told reporters that state revenues had improved enough for him to release nearly 8-and-a-half million dollars that’s been withheld from Missouri’s colleges and universities since July 1.