A. Following consultation with each public institution of higher education and the Higher Education Advisory Committee described in § 23.1-309, the Council shall calculate the basic operations and instruction funding need of each public institution of higher education as provided in subsection B for each year of the next biennium and make such calculation available to the Governor, the General Assembly, and all public institutions of higher education. The Governor shall take into account each institution’s basic operations and instruction funding need and the Commonwealth’s funding split policy established in the general appropriation act 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 during the preparation of his proposed biennial budget bill for the next biennium, and the General Assembly shall take such items into account in enacting the general appropriation act for the next biennium. Between such biennial recalculations, the General Assembly may increase or decrease the appropriation of basic operations and instruction funding to a public institution of higher education to correspond with an increase or decrease in Virginia undergraduate student enrollment at the institution as provided in § 23.1-304, or the institution’s meeting or not meeting targeted financial incentives listed in § 23.1-305, or for any other purpose deemed appropriate by the General Assembly.

B. The basic operations and instruction funding need of each public institution of higher education for each fiscal year of the biennium shall consist of the sum of (i) the institution’s cost of education for the total enrollment in actual attendance 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) a set of formulas for calculating (1) educational cost based on faculty-student ratios by discipline and level and (2) the educational and general programs of instruction, academic support, student services, institutional support, and operation and maintenance of physical plant and (b) adjustments 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 as established in the general appropriation act; 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 public institutions of higher education 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 proposed biennial budget bill and by the General Assembly as it deems appropriate in the general appropriation act.

History

2011, cc. 828, 869, § 23-38.87:13; 2016, c. 588.