Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A College Board committee voted Wednesday to send a plan shifting how state money is distributed among Mississippi's eight universities to the full board.

But the board's leader is questioning state subsidies for non-Mississippi residents, raising the possibility of more debate Thursday.

Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds says the new formula is meant to more fairly distribute state aid among the schools. In recent years, individual university shares of state funding have remained frozen, even as enrollments have shrunk at some schools and grown at others.

For the budget year beginning July 1, the plan would boost funding for some universities, but wouldn't cut money to any school.

Figures presented Wednesday showed that state money allocated from the main pot of $340 million would rise the most — 6.6 percent or $904,000 — at the Mississippi University for Women. Other gainers would include Alcorn State University, where aid would go up 5.7 percent or $1 million; the University of Mississippi, where aid would go up 5.5 percent or $3.9 million, and Mississippi State University, where aid would go up $623,000 or 0.7 percent.

Bounds said the boosts would cut the inequities measured by the formula between universities by roughly half. The University of Southern Mississippi, Delta State University and Mississippi Valley State University would remain overfunded, but less so.

Jackson State University is close to the funding level called for by the formula and would see little change.

Excluded from the shifts are the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the agricultural units of MSU and Alcorn.

Board President Bob Owens challenged the formula's decision to fund credit hours earned by out-of-state students at 85 percent of what universities will get for credits earned by Mississippi residents. He said that level was too high.

"Our mission is to educate Mississippians," Owens said, indicating he might try to lower the ratio Thursday. "That's where my heart is."

Bounds said that cutting aid for out-of-state students would undermine the plans of smaller universities to ramp up the recruitment of non-Mississippi students as a way to increase revenue. Such recruitment is a cornerstone of the College Board's strategy to cope with funding cuts of recent years.

Bounds argued that a logical consequence of less aid for non-residents would be that universities that have dropped extra charges for some or all non-resident students would have to reinstate them. Delta State and Mississippi Valley State have dropped all non-resident surcharges in the last year, while most other schools have dropped surcharges for select groups of non-Mississippians. Several other trustees voiced support for Bounds' position.

Owens said he was also concerned that the formula doesn't consider the out-of-state fees that some universities are collecting when dividing up state aid. He said, and Bounds agreed, that when that extra revenue is accounted for, the University of Mississippi probably has more money than some of the schools it trails in state aid.

There was less dissension about other features. Trustee Aubrey Patterson said he liked the system because it was "performance driven" paying universities for moving students through classes and achieving other goals.

Trustee Douglas Rouse said he also liked rewards for students with low ACT scores or low incomes.

"Those are the kids we should be rewarding. If we can get those kids through, it will make a lot of difference to the state."

Bounds said the five smallest universities have greater shares, proportionally, of those types of students.

The formula would work by first putting aside 7 percent to fund operating expenses. The four smallest universities would get about 15 percent of operating expenses funded by the state, while Jackson State would get 10 percent and Ole Miss, MSU and USM would get 6 percent. Bounds said smaller schools, because they don't benefit from economies of scale, need a bigger boost for overhead.

The next 84 percent of the money would be allocated based on how many course-hours students complete. Each school would be paid for its share of overall course hours taught statewide, with weights to reflect expenses for teaching courses that require highly-paid faculty and special equipment. For example, a university would get 8.8 times more money to teach a credit hour of doctoral-level math, science or engineering than it would get for teaching introductory English.

The final 9 percent of the money would be distributed to reward universities fulfilling College Board priorities. For example, schools would get money when students complete one year worth of credit hours, when students who enter with a 19 or lower on the ACT college test graduate, when outside research money increases, when they graduate a greater share of their students, or when they spend less money per graduate.