Higher Education Performance Funding

Most taxpayer-supported technical and community colleges receive funding based on enrollment rather than the success of their graduates. Today, 42 percent of public two-year programs have a negative return on investment for students—and it gets worse. Eighty-one percent of two-year programs in liberal arts and English literature fail to deliver meaningful monetary results.

Though many programs aren’t delivering on their promises, some are. And they should be rewarded.

States should reward colleges when their students succeed and redeploy funds elsewhere when they do not. And courses of study that lead to sustainable careers should be funded more generously than those that often lead to a dead end.

The Rewarding Workforce Readiness Act:

• Rewards community and technical college programs when their students’ wages rise.
• Rewards schools when low-income students achieve upward economic mobility.
• Incentivizes colleges to add more programs that work, remove those that no longer do, and guide students through their journey—from enrollment to gainful employment.

Preparing students for work beyond the classroom and funding colleges based on their ability to do so will improve economic outcomes and save taxpayers money. It will encourage enterprising minds to innovate and encourage schools to aid them on their way.