Tim Jones, senior vice chancellor for finance, administration and chief financial officer for the State University System of Florida, told the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee that the system’s “total operating budget for the system is about $20,000,000,000.”

Jones gave senators an overview of the system’s scale, funding mix and the performance funding model used to allocate state dollars. He said the system includes 12 universities, serves more than 430,000 students who take at least one class during the academic year, awards more than 100,000 degrees annually, and manages more than 4,111 buildings.

The briefing focused on where system funding comes from and how state support is currently distributed. Jones said undergraduate resident tuition “is set in Florida statute at $105.07 per credit hour,” and that changes to that rate require action by the Legislature and the governor and a two‑thirds vote to adjust the amount. He noted the system has “the lowest tuition in the country” for undergraduates, citing national comparisons used by the system.

Why it matters: the presentation outlined the combination of recurring and nonrecurring state allocations that have driven system priorities, including targeted programs intended to improve graduation and retention rates, recruit faculty and strengthen certain academic programs. Those funding choices are the basis for lawmakers as they consider budget decisions affecting colleges and universities.

Key funding details and programs

- Jones described five budget entities in the system’s operating budget and said the largest is Education and General (E&G), which he put at about $6.8 billion and which includes roughly $4.8 billion in state appropriations and $2.0 billion in student tuition.

- He said contracts and grants make up about $5.0 billion (primarily federal grants), local funds about $3.4 billion (including federal financial aid flows and student fees), auxiliaries nearly $3.0 billion (housing, dining, parking, bookstores) and faculty practice funds for medical clinics.

- Jones said the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association data (fiscal year 2023) show total funding per FTE of almost $16,000, with the state appropriation component high relative to tuition for Florida institutions.

Performance funding and programmatic allocations

- Jones summarized performance funding as a statutory program launched in 2014 and reported that, “over those 11 years 12 years we've received a total of $2,700,000,000 for performance funding.” He said the funding shifted from recurring to largely nonrecurring beginning in 2021 and that the Legislature sets the annual amount; for the current year he said the allocation is $350,000,000 and the system’s legislative budget request asks to increase that to $400,000,000.

- Other targeted initiatives described included the preeminence statute (13 statutory metrics, 12 required for designation), a Performance‑Based Recognition Program (two years of $100,000,000 nonrecurring allocations), a World‑Class Faculty and Scholar Program (about $90.5 million over two years), and nursing pipeline and line matching programs (about $120 million and $18 million respectively across recent years), per Jones’s account.

How the performance model works

- Jones said the model totals 100 points and scores institutions on either “excellence” (meeting a strategic plan goal) or “improvement” (gaining ground year over year), choosing whichever yields the higher score for a given metric. He described a process that requires a student success plan if a university’s score declines two years in a row or if it falls below 70 points; schools below 70 points lose half of their state performance funding until they recover above that threshold.

- The metrics, he said, focus on retention, graduation, degree production in strategic fields, employment or graduate‑school placement and salary outcomes; most metrics are worth 10 points each with two smaller metrics worth five points each. Jones said the board adopted a new strategic plan (SUS 30 Extraordinary Impact) that will lead to adjustments in benchmarks and some metrics this fall, and he said the June accountability report will be based on the old strategic‑plan goals.

Questions from committee members

- Senators asked for clarification about which metrics would be used to evaluate institutions against the funding in the upcoming budget year; Jones said institutions will be evaluated on the current metrics for funds being appropriated this year and that changes tied to the new strategic plan would be phased in so schools have time to respond in cases where improvements require multiple years.

- On out‑of‑state enrollment and tuition, Jones said there is no statutory cap on nonresident students but a Board of Governors regulation caps the system‑wide share at 10 percent; he said some campuses currently exceed that threshold and the board is discussing how to respond. He also said out‑of‑state and graduate tuition rates vary by program and have not increased since 2013 in many cases; changes require approval by a two‑thirds vote of a university’s board of trustees and by the Board of Governors.

Ending

The subcommittee did not take votes on policy changes during the meeting. Chair Harrell and members indicated they expect additional briefings and follow‑up from the Board of Governors and system staff as they prepare budget decisions that rely on the funding model outlined in Jones’s presentation.