We compiled the first longitudinal data set with detailed state funding information to examine whether different funding strategies for public higher education correlate with college access and completion, with a focus on outcomes among racially minoritized students. We found no relationships between funding mechanisms and student outcomes at public universities. However, at community colleges, we found that funding strategies that combine base adjustments and enrollment or performance components may increase enrollment, but not completions.
BakerD. J. (2019). Pathways to racial equity in higher education: Modeling the antecedents of state affirmative action bans. American Educational Research Journal, 56(5), 1861–1895. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219833918
4.
BermanE. P. (2022). Thinking like a.tifn economist. Princeton University Press.
5.
BoundJ.BragaB.KhannaG.TurnerS. (2019). Public universities: The supply side of building a skilled workforce. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(5), 43–66. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2019.5.5.03.
6.
CandelariaC. A.McNeillS. M.ShoresK. A. (2022). What is a school finance reform? Uncovering the ubiquity and diversity of school finance reforms using a Bayesian changepoint estimator [EdWorkingPaper 22–587]. https://doi.org/10.26300/4vey-3w10
7.
CaruthersJ. K.MarksJ. L. (1988). State funding formulas for higher education in the SREB states. Southern Regional Education Board.
8.
ChakrabartiR.GortonN.LovenheimM. F. (2020). State investment in higher education: Effects on human capital formation, student debt, and long-term financial outcomes of students [Staff Report No. 941]. Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
9.
CheslockJ. J.ShamekhiY. (2020). Decomposing financial inequality across U.S. higher education institutions. Economics of Education Review, 78(102035). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102035
10.
DavisM. R.D’AmicoM. M.DikaS.GiffordE. N. (2022). Exploring the association of tiered funding for economic development and enrollment. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 46(8), 548–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2021.1883153
11.
DemingD. J.WaltersC. R. (2017). The impact of price caps and spending cuts on US postsecondary attainment [Working paper 23736]. National Bureau of Economic Research.
12.
DoughertyK. J.NatowR. S.VegaB. E. (2012). Popular but unstable: Explaining why state performance funding systems in the United States often do not persist. Teachers College Record, 114(3), 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811211400306
FosterJ. M.FowlesJ. (2018). Ethnic heterogeneity, group affinity, and state higher education spending. Research in Higher Education, 59, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9453-3
15.
GándaraD. (2019). Does evidence matter? An analysis of evidence use in performance-funding policy design. Review of Higher Education, 42(3), 991–1022. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2019.0027
16.
GándaraD.RutherfordA. (2018). Mitigating unintended impacts? The effects of premiums for underserved populations in performance-funding policies for higher education. Research in Higher Education, 59, 681–703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9483-x
17.
GándaraD.RutherfordA. (2020). Completion at the expense of access? The relationship between performance-funding policies and access to public 4-year universities. Educational Researcher, 49(5), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20927386
18.
HagoodL. P. (2019). The financial benefits and burdens of performance funding in higher education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 41(2), 189–213. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373719837318
19.
HarrisA. (2021). The state must provide: Why America’s colleges have always been unequal—and how to set them right. HarperCollins.
HearnJ. C. (2015). Outcomes-based funding in historical and comparative context. Lumina Foundation.
22.
HillmanN. W.TandbergD. A.FryarA. H. (2015). Evaluating the impacts of “new” performance funding in higher education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(4), 501–519.
23.
JacksonC. K.JohnsonR. C.PersicoC. (2016). The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance reforms. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(1), 157–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjv036
24.
KelchenR. (2018). Higher education accountability. Johns Hopkins University Press.
25.
KelchenR.LingoM.BakerD. J.RosingerK. O.OrtagusJ.WuJ. (forthcoming). A typology and landscape of state funding formulas from 2004 to 2020. Review of Higher Education.
26.
KelchenR.OrtagusJ.BakerD. J.RosingerK. O. (2020). Trends in state funding for public higher education. InformEd States.
27.
KelchenR.RosingerK. O.OrtagusJ. C. (2019). How to create and use state-level policy data sets in education research. AERA Open, 5(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419873619
LadermanS.HeckertK. (2021). State higher education finance: FY 2020. State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
30.
LayzellD. T. (2007). State higher education funding models: An assessment of current and emerging approaches. Journal of Education Finance, 33(1), 1–19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40704312
31.
LiA. Y. (2017). Covet thy neighbor or “reverse policy diffusion”? State adoption of performance funding 2.0. Research in Higher Education, 58(7), 746–771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-016-9444-9
32.
LiA. Y.KelchenR. (2021). Policy diffusion of performance funding equity metrics: Traditional neighbor and dyadic survival analysis. Educational Policy, 37(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048211058439
33.
LiA. Y.GándaraD.AssaloneA. (2018). Equity or disparity: Do performance funding policies disadvantage 2-year minority-serving institutions?Community College Review, 46(3), 288–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552118778776
MasketS.ShorB. (2015). Polarization without parties: Term limits and legislative partisanship in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 15(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532440014564984
36.
McLendonM. K.HearnJ. C.DeatonR. (2006). Called to account: Analyzing the origins and spread of state performance-accountability policies for higher education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 28(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737028001001
37.
McLendonM. K.MokherC. G.DoyleW. (2009). “Privileging” public research universities: An empirical analysis of the distribution of state appropriations across research and non-research universities. Journal of Education Finance, 34(4), 372–401.
38.
McLendonM. K.TandbergD. A.HillmanN. W. (2014). Financing college opportunity factors influencing state spending on student financial aid and campus appropriations, 1990 through 2010. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 655, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214540849
39.
MonarrezT.HernandezF.RainerM. (2021). Impact of state higher education finance on attainment. Urban Institute.
40.
OrtagusJ. C.KelchenR.RosingerK.VoorheesN. (2020). Performance-based funding in American higher education: A systematic synthesis of the intended and unintended consequences. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(4), 520–550. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720953128
41.
OrtagusJ. C.RosingerK. O.KelchenR. (2021). InformEd States performance-based funding policies dataset. InformEd States. https://informedstates.org/data
42.
OrtagusJ. C.RosingerK. O.KelchenR.ChuG.LingoM. (2023). The unequal impacts of performance-based funding on institutional resources in higher education. Research in Higher Education, 64, 705–739. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09719-2
43.
OrtagusJ. C.RosingerK. O.KelchenR.VoorheesN.ChuG.AllchinH. (2023). A national analysis of the impact of performance-based funding on completion outcomes among underserved students. The Review of Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.0.0188
RayV. (2019). A theory of racialized organizations. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 26–53.
46.
RosingerK. O.OrtagusJ. C.KelchenR.CassellA.BrownL. (2022). New evidence on the landscape and evolution of performance funding for higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 93(5), 735–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2022.2066269
47.
RosingerK. O.OrtagusJ. C.KelchenR.ChuG.LingoM. (2022). The unequal impacts of performance-based funding on institutional resources in higher education. Research in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09719-2
48.
RosingerK.OrtagusJ.KelchenR.ChoiJ. (2023). The impact of performance funding policy design on college access and selectivity. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737221147905
TandbergD. A. (2013). The conditioning role of state higher education governance structures. Journal of Higher Education, 84(4), 506–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2013.11777300
51.
TaylorB. J. (2022). Wrecked: Deinstitutionalization and partial defenses in state higher education policy. Rutgers University Press.
52.
TaylorB. J.CantwellB. (2019). Unequal higher education: Wealth, status, and student opportunity. Rutgers University Press.
53.
TaylorB. J.CantwellB.WattsK.WoodO. (2020). Partisanship, White racial resentment, and state support for higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 91(6), 858–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2019.1706016
54.
WebberD. A.EhrenbergR. G. (2010). Do expenditures other than instructional expenditures affect graduation and persistence rates in American higher education?Economics of Education Review, 29(6), 947–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2010.04.006
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
