A. Following consultation with each institution and the Higher Education Advisory Committee described in § 23-38.87:20, the Council shall calculate each institution’s basic operations and instruction funding need as provided in subsection B for each year of the next biennium and shall make that calculation available to the Governor, the General Assembly, and all public institutions of higher education. Each institution’s basic operations and instruction funding need, and the Commonwealth’s funding split policy by which 67 percent of an institution’s cost of education for Virginia students is funded from the state general fund and 33 percent from funds other than the state general fund, shall be taken into account by the Governor during the preparation of his proposed biennial budget bill recommending the appropriation act for the next biennium and by the General Assembly in enacting that act. Between these biennial recalculations, an institution’s appropriated basic operations and instruction funding may be increased or decreased for (i) an increase or decrease in Virginia undergraduate student enrollment as provided in § 23-38.87:14, (ii) meeting or not meeting targeted financial incentives listed in § 23-38.87:16, and (iii) any other purpose deemed appropriate by the General Assembly.
B. An institution’s basic operations and instruction funding need for each fiscal year of the biennium shall be the sum of (i) the institution’s cost of education for the total enrollment of students who actually attended that institution during the fiscal year that ended on June 30 of each odd-numbered year, which shall be determined using a cost-based funding policy that consists of a set of formulas for calculating educational cost based on faculty-student ratios by discipline and level, and the educational and general programs of instruction, academic support, student services, institutional support, and operation and maintenance of physical plant, with adjustments to the funding policy based on particular state policies or specific institutional missions or conditions, (ii) the amount required to reach the Commonwealth’s faculty salary goal of the 60th percentile of the most recently reported average faculty salaries paid by that institution’s peer institutions, and (iii) such other funding for educational and general services as the General Assembly may appropriate.
C. State general funds shall be allocated and appropriated to institutions in a fair and equitable manner such that, to the extent practicable, the percentage of the cost of education for Virginia students enrolled at an institution to be funded from state general funds is the same for each institution. To the extent that the percentages differ among institutions, that fact shall be taken into account as the Governor deems appropriate in his budget bill and by the General Assembly as it deems appropriate in the appropriation act.
History
2011, cc. 828, 869.
