The leaders of Iowa’s private colleges and universities say the stability of the state’s higher education “eco-system” is threatened by the proposed “performance-based” funding formula for the three state-supported universities. Mark Putnam, the president of Central College in Pella, says rewarding the state universities with more tax dollars if they enroll more Iowa high school graduates is “perilous” not only for private colleges, but the public universities as well.

Gary Steinke, the executive director of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, says “every other state” that has tied state tax dollar support to in-state student enrollment has abandoned the effort.

 

Steinke says the proposal has sparked a “sector war” in Iowa’s high education community — for an idea that research shows ultimately makes no improvement in student performance. The Board of Regents — the nine-member panel that governs the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa — has proposed a change in the formula that distributes state tax dollars to the three public universities. Regents officials say it’s designed, in large part, to reward U-N-I which has gotten the smallest share of state support in the past and where over 90 percent of students are Iowa residents. The loser in the change would be the University of Iowa, where nearly half of the students come from out-of-state.