(1) A Florida College System Performance-Based Incentive shall be awarded to Florida College System institutions using performance-based metrics adopted by the State Board of Education. The performance-based metrics must include retention rates; program completion and graduation rates; postgraduation employment, salaries, and continuing education for workforce education and baccalaureate programs, with wage thresholds that reflect the added value of the certificate or degree; and outcome measures appropriate for associate of arts degree recipients. The state board shall adopt benchmarks to evaluate each institution’s performance on the metrics to measure the institution’s achievement of institutional excellence or need for improvement and the minimum requirements for eligibility to receive performance funding.
(2) Each fiscal year, the amount of funds available for allocation to the Florida College System institutions based on the performance-based funding model shall consist of the state’s investment in performance funding plus institutional investments consisting of funds to be redistributed from the base funding of the Florida College System Program Fund as determined in the General Appropriations Act. The State Board of Education shall establish minimum performance funding eligibility thresholds for the state’s investment and the institutional investments. An institution that meets the minimum institutional investment eligibility threshold, but fails to meet the minimum state investment eligibility threshold, shall have its institutional investment restored but is ineligible for a share of the state’s investment in performance funding. The institutional investment shall be restored for all institutions eligible for the state’s investment under the performance-based funding model.
(3)(a) Each Florida College System institution’s share of the performance funding shall be calculated based on its relative performance on the established metrics in conjunction with the institutional size and scope.
(b) A Florida College System institution that fails to meet the State Board of Education’s minimum institutional investment performance funding eligibility threshold shall have a portion of its institutional investment withheld by the state board and must submit an improvement plan to the state board which specifies the activities and strategies for improving the institution’s performance. The state board must review and approve the improvement plan and, if the plan is approved, must monitor the institution’s progress in implementing the activities and strategies specified in the improvement plan. The institution shall submit monitoring reports to the state board by December 31 and May 31 of each year in which an improvement plan is in place. Beginning in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the ability of an institution to submit an improvement plan to the state board is limited to 1 fiscal year.
(c) The Commissioner of Education shall withhold disbursement of the institutional investment until the monitoring report is approved by the State Board of Education. A Florida College System institution determined by the state board to be making satisfactory progress on implementing the improvement plan shall receive no more than one-half of the withheld institutional investment in January and the balance of the withheld institutional investment in June. An institution that fails to make satisfactory progress may not have its full institutional investment restored. Any institutional investment funds that are not restored shall be redistributed in accordance with the state board’s performance-based metrics.
(4) Distributions of performance funding, as provided in this section, shall be made to each of the Florida College System institutions listed in the Florida Colleges category in the General Appropriations Act.
(5) By October 1 of each year, the State Board of Education shall submit to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a report on the previous fiscal year’s performance funding allocation, which must reflect the rankings and award distributions.
(6) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules to administer this section.
