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| Rep. Ramon Alexander, Rep. Ray Wesley Rodrigues, Rep. Larry Ahern, and Rep. Mel Ponder |
The revisions are now part of HB 423, which Rodrigues
is sponsoring. The bill received a favorable vote from the Post-Secondary Subcommittee on
January 17th with a committee substitution. Last week, the bill also received a
favorable vote from the Higher Education Subcommittee on February 6th. Ahern is
the subcommittee chair, Ponder is the vice-chair, and Alexander is a member.
“Each university will compete against its own past
performance” instead of against other SUS schools
Back in December, Alexander discussed PBF during a Virtual
Town Hall Meeting on Facebook Live. He said that it isn’t right to compare
State University System of Florida (SUS) schools with different sizes and
missions against each other for PBF.
“When you look at the University of Florida, 90 percent of
their students are on Bright Futures. At FAMU, 87 percent of our students are
on need-based aid,” Alexander said.
He added: “To compare the University of North Florida to the
University of Florida, you have more of a regional institution, than a
university that has depth in research, is not fair.”
An article by the News Service of Florida reported that: “Alexander’s argument has found support in the House, with leaders backing a provision in the higher-education bill that calls for the Board of Governors to create a performance-funding system based on individual school performance, rather than comparing the schools across the system.”
A staff analysis of the bill says: “The BOG is required to
develop and implement a performance agreement with each university that, by
August 1, 2018, establishes baseline benchmarks unique to each university on
the common performance metrics. The bill eliminates unnecessary competition
between universities for the state investment in performance funding because
each university will compete against its own past performance. All universities
will have the opportunity to meet eligibility requirements for performance
funding if they meet their own individual improvement benchmarks.”
Transitioning away from “Bottom 3” concept
Alexander continues to speak out against the “Bottom 3”
concept that the BOG currently uses in its PBF system. The BOG denies PBF money
to the three universities that finish in the “Bottom 3” each year no matter how much
they improve.
“This ‘Bottom 3’ concept within the Board of Governors is a
flawed system,” he said. “It is a tiered system, And it is not in the best interests
of all of our state universities.”
HB 423 says “each state university that meets the benchmarks for improvement established in its performance agreement...shall be eligible for a share of the state investment in performance funding.” That is a big change from the current BOG rule that makes the “Bottom 3” automatically ineligible for PBF dollars.
The bill will require the BOG to come up with a plan to move to a complete PBF system that divides the money up in a fair way.
The staff analysis of the bill says that: “The bill requires
the BOG, in consultation with the state
universities, to submit to the Governor, President of the Senate and Speaker of
the House by January 1, 2019, a plan for transitioning from the current partial
performance-based funding model to a complete performance-based continuous
improvement funding model that is focused on outcomes. The plan must include a
revised method for the equitable distribution of performance funds that is not
based solely on historical funding distributions...”
The legislature must approve the plan before PBF decisions
can be made in 2019-2020.
BOG cannot change PBF metrics for four years
Alexander has said that the BOG changes the performance
metrics each year in ways that benefit many of the biggest universities and
deny any new PBF funding to the “Bottom 3” no matter how much they improve.
The bill will prevent the BOG from altering the metrics
every year. It says: “Benchmarks and metrics must remain in place for 4 years
and may not be adjusted after university performance data has been received by
the Board of Governors.”