N.D. higher ed board plans incentive program

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BISMARCK — Future budget proposals for North Dakota’s university system will include financial incentives for colleges that meet new achievement benchmarks being drawn up by the Board of Higher Education, two members said Tuesday.

Richie Smith, the board’s president, and Jon Backes, its vice president, told the Legislature’s interim higher education committee that the program’s standards will be developed during the next two years for the system’s 11 public colleges.

One possibility is to reward colleges if they reach graduation rate targets, a report presented to lawmakers says. Laura Glatt, the system’s vice chancellor for administrative affairs, said more than 25 states have tried similar incentive programs for their public colleges, although some later dropped it.

The proposal is included in a broader plan that sets out the Board of Higher Education’s long-term finance goals.

Rep. Mark Dosch, R-Bismarck, a member of the higher education panel, said the blueprint lacked innovative thinking and appeared to be a plan for assuring large future increases in state spending on colleges.

“This seems to me like it’s the same old thing that we’ve been doing,” Dosch said.

Glatt, though, said that for North Dakota the incentive plan would represent “a significant shift.”

“This is a tough thing to do,” Glatt said. “It is a major change in that ... you try to put your dollars into specific functions or activities that promote the state’s agenda, and you reward those kinds of behaviors.”

Last year, the Legislature approved raising North Dakota’s taxpayer support for colleges to $593.3 million over two years, an increase of $121.3 million, or almost 26 percent. The sum does not include tuition collections, federal aid or income from research grants and contracts.

Backes said a board task force had studied higher education financing methods in other states, and concluded that North Dakota’s current system did not need a major overhaul.

“We, quite frankly, did not find a methodology that we felt was more equitable or superior to the one we have today,” Backes said. “That’s not to say that the plan doesn’t need to change with the times.”

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