The state is looking to switch the formula for how much money UNM gets from the state from enrollment-based to performance-based; the question is how.
The funding formula needs to receive funding in order to be implemented.
“The Higher Education Department and all of the institutions agree on what the formula is supposed to do,” said Susan McKinsey, a professional consultant at UNM’s Government and Community Relations Office. “They differ on how formula implementation is to be funded.”
Higher Education Department Secretary Jose Garcia recommended 5 percent of the FY12 funding base for each of the state’s higher education institutions be used to begin implementation of the funding formula, McKinsey said.
University presidents in New Mexico, including UNM President David Schmidly, are against Garcia’s recommendation, however, because they see using that 5 percent as a budget cut.
McKinsey said university presidents want the Legislative Finance Committee to come up with new funds to implement a new funding formula. The new funding formula would be performance-based instead of enrollment-based, which means it would measure course completion and degrees awarded instead of enrollment numbers.
“The real issue here is not losing any more money,” President Schmidly said during Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee meetings.
Despite New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s optimism about an increase of funds in the 2013 state budget, the LFC might not have any funds to give.
Natural gas prices are rapidly decreasing, which could pose a threat to the revenue projection on which the 2012 budget proposals were originally built, McKinsey said.
The higher education budget has not yet been finalized.
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