Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has a proposal for the University of Wisconsin campuses that can greatly affect how the educational institution will conduct itself in the future. The proposal has something to do with how much funding each college and university receives.
Walker wants to give students some sort of an insurance for students under the UW Campus system through a performance-based funding. The governor said that students need to know what kind of education they're getting since it's their future which is on the line. He also added that students want to know if they can finish on time so that they will not be burdened by a huge student debt loan
The proposed funding system will have colleges submit their 'report card' which will be the basis on how much percentage of the funding they will receive from the government. The criteria for the supposed performance report include graduation rates, the average time of finishing the degree, the number of students who get a job, and the number of students who are in high-profile jobs in Wisconsin.
What Walker wants is accountability and transparency which is evident on how he wants the report to be presented. According to Journal Sentinel, colleges are required to post the report they created based on the given criteria so that students and parents can have informed decisions before choosing the college. Whoever gets the highest score gets the most of the $42.5 million budget for education.
Although the UW Campus system had already been doing what the governor wanted to happen, there are still some misgivings since funding has never been based on performance.
Nicholas Hillman, an assistant professor of policy analysis and education leadership at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, colleges should not be pitted against each other but rather, should be judged according to its performance. He also added that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all policy because each college is different from one another.
