The Legislature balked at putting so-called “outcomes-based funding” proposals into place last session, but did approve a measure authorizing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop an outcomes-based funding model that could be used for 10 percent of its funding request for this session.
Branch said [Wednesday] that Texas “desperately needs more incentive” to up the number of graduates each year. He said that per year, an estimated 90,000 non-Texans are filling jobs that could be filled by Texans with the right credentials. “We need to do a better job of organically creating graduates in this state,” Branch said. “Texas needs stories that begin, have a middle and have an ending. … Taxpayers are looking to fund a story that has a completion.”
And that story would be funded based on graduation rates. Branch has now filed a bill that would tie 25 percent of school funding to outcomes and graduation rates, a move that has been approved or proposed in 25 other states.
