As Mississippi moves toward adopting a performance-based funding model for its eight public universities, some concerns have been raised, mostly about how the change might adversely impact the state’s three historically Black universities.
But there’s another concern that should be raised, too.
Could performance-based funding produce the unintended consequence of further devaluing a college degree?
The plan that the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board and its consultants have devised would tie a portion of the state money the universities receive to three main performance metrics: student retention, graduation rates and workforce outcomes.
In theory, that sounds good. A university should want its students to stay in school, graduate and land a decent-paying job after their schooling is over.
In practice, though, good intentions can get perverted when money is on the line.
Professors at U.S. campuses are already under pressure from students, their families and the academic departments to award higher grades than the students deserve. Grades have become largely meaningless at the nation’s most elite colleges, with 80% or better of the grades given to undergraduates at Harvard and Yale being either an A or A-minus. The Harvard faculty recently took the tepid step of capping A’s at 20% per class, although it put no limit on A-minuses. If grade inflation is happening at the Ivies, it’s happening most everywhere, including at public universities.
If Mississippi’s IHL Board decides to tie a university’s funding to retention and graduation rates, it won’t be long before professors feel pressure from their higher-ups to keep students happy and in school with higher grades than merited. The more financially tenuous the institution, the greater the pressure will be.
Mississippi has already watered down the value of a college degree by enrolling students who require lots of remediation because they received an inferior education in high school. This funding model has the potential to make the situation worse by encouraging the social promotion of weak students.
If a college degree is to mean anything, it should be hard to achieve. Rather than penalizing schools where a higher-than-average percentage of students fail, maybe they should be applauded for maintaining academic integrity.
