How many professors at Arkansas' colleges--community, four-year land-grants, or in-between--read Wednesday's story on college funding twice? Or maybe three times.
Tie funding to how many degrees are handed out? Uh, can somebody provide more details? You-know-who lives in the details, and he's not to be trusted.
The governor of Arkansas says he supports Outcomes Based Funding for the state's colleges and universities. Right now, he says, the state rewards growth in colleges. He wants to reward excellence.
That's fine, but . . . .
The Hon. and honorable Asa Hutchinson says the goal for the state should be to have more college graduates as a percentage of its population by 2025.
That's fine, but . . . .
"If we can do that in Arkansas, then we are going to be driving our economy, increasing our per capita income at the same time," he said.
That's also fine, but ... .
It all seems like a noble quest. Get more young people better educations. Who could be against it? After all, a lot of education reformers are convinced that rewards help K-12 education. Why not take it to the next level? If merit pay works for the science teacher down the street, shouldn't it work for the science professor?
But . . . . And you knew there'd be a but.
Merit pay for K-12 schools is based on test scores, standardized test scores, or certainly should be. Outside of Atlanta, Ga., the accuracy of the test scores isn't really debated. Nobody has ever accused merit pay in K-12 schools of contributing to grade inflation.
But in college, grade inflation already is a problem, according to those in the know. If the state starts tying college funding to the number of degrees coming out of them, what's to keep those institutions from becoming diploma mills?
How increase student success in college without reducing academic standards? That's the real trick. Some have asked that colleges reduce the red tape that causes some students to drop out for non-academic reasons, which sounds like a good idea inside academia and out. Better or at least more intrusive academic advising can't hurt. Ask four professors, and you'd get five opinions on how to help students along in their college careers. But something tells us that most professors would give Outcomes Based Funding an F in their classrooms. Or maybe an Incomplete until more research is provided.
The governor surely has a number of people working on this. And the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board might go over the plan sometime today. That's fine. But the details, the details.
How is the state going to pull this off without making degrees in Arkansas second-rate? Because if that's the course, the devil take it.
Editorial on 07/29/2016