Committee indefinitely defers bill to tie UH funding to performance metrics

Members of the House Committee on Higher Education on March 14, 2025, considered Senate Bill 1530, a measure that would require the University of Hawaii Board of Regents or the university president to allocate general funds to program IDs in accordance with performance-based outcomes tied to student achievement and degree attainment, and to propose efficiency measures to the director of finance.

Albert Young, representing the university system, said the university is not opposed in principle to performance-based metrics but raised concerns that the bill as written would impose metrics across the entirety of the general fund budget, which he described as impractical for running government operations. UH representatives noted the measure raises practical concerns for budgeting and identified constitutional comments filed by the Attorney General’s Office regarding Article 10.

The committee chair said that, given federal funding uncertainties and concerns raised by university witnesses, “now is not the time to add additional uncertainty” by moving to a full performance-based model. The chair recommended deferring the measure indefinitely. The transcript records the chair’s recommendation but does not show a roll-call vote on an indefinite deferral at this hearing.