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Nixon wants performance-based funding for Mo. universities

Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon (D).
(UPI/Bill Greenblatt)
Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon (D).

Governor Jay Nixon (D) wants to move Missouri’s universities and community colleges back to a performance-based funding model.

It would mark a return to the way business was once conducted.  Graduation rates and similar markers were used as a basis for funding public colleges in Missouri, but the system was dumped a decade ago during an economic recession.

Nixon says the current system, based on how much money each school has historically received, is not working.

“Raises or cuts are made across the board, and for the most part without considering results such as student success, degree productivity, research discoveries or other quantifiable measures of achievement," Nixon told a gathering of higher education officials Thursday in Jefferson City.

Nixon has appointed a task force of educators to recommend ways to move universities and community colleges toward a performance-based system.  Those recommendations are to be forwarded to lawmakers in time for next year’s legislative session. State Senator David Pearce(R, Warrensburg) chairs the Senate’s Education Committee.

“I think it’s a healthy concept that we take a look at what our universities are doing, our four-year as well as (our) community college(s)," Pearce said.  "(Let's) take a look at what are those standards that we really as a state want them to excel at, and then reward them for that.”

Marshal was a political reporter for St. Louis Public Radio until 2018.