Linking funding to colleges’ graduation rates

I’m all for improving retention and success rates, but I found the rhetoric here a little surprising.  We owe students graduation because “we take students’ money”?  Do they pay for graduation, or do they pay for admission and the opportunity?  Clearly, the chairman is right that we have “a moral and ethical obligation to do everything we possibly can to help them graduate.”  But is it because we take their money?

In any case, the Board of Regents in Georgia is making it all about the money.  Funding may be linked to graduation rates in Georgia.

“Let’s be honest, that is an embarrassment,” said Willis Potts, chairman of the State Board of Regents. “If we take students’ money we have a moral and ethical obligation to do everything we possibly can to help them graduate. We haven’t been doing that.”

The regents ordered each college president to explain where their campuses struggle. They had to develop improvement plans, with most calling on graduation rates to improve by 1 percent a year over the next three years. The regents approved those plans earlier this month.

Potts said the next step is to research linking campus funding and presidential compensation to how well colleges meet their  goals.

via Georgia colleges’ graduation rates unsatisfactory  | ajc.com.