Exploring the Association of Tiered Funding for Economic Development and Enrollment

• Published in: Community college journal of research and practice Vol. 46; no. 8; pp. 548 - 559
• Main Authors: Davis, Marc R., D'Amico, Mark M., Dika, Sandra, Gifford, Eva N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Routledge 03-08-2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: College Enrollment; Community College Students; Community Colleges; Community Relations; Dependency theory; Economic Development; Educational Finance; Enrollment; Enrollment Trends; Enrollments; Funding; Funding Formulas; Individualized Instruction; Institutional Characteristics; Program Costs; State Aid; Two Year Colleges; Urbanization; North Carolina; United States > US
• DOI: 10.1080/10668926.2021.1883153
• EISSN: 1521-0413
• ISSN: 1066-8926

In 2011, North Carolina implemented a tiered funding model for community colleges in an attempt to address program cost differentiation. In 2014, the funding model changed from a three-tiered model to a four-tiered model with additional funds for courses that address skills gaps and lead to higher-wage jobs. The purpose of this study was to examine the 2014 funding policy change and enrollment behavior between 2014 to 2018 at North Carolina community colleges, overall and by specific institutional grouping categories: geographic region, disciplinary focus, prevalent student type, undergraduate classification, size of institution, and degree of urbanization (locale). The aggregate community college enrollment and 19 out of 20 institutional grouping categories saw decreased enrollment in the lower funded course and increased enrollment in higher financed courses, supporting resource dependency theory. Further, the results showed that the tiered enrollment profile was dependent on time for the aggregate population as well as the institutional groupings.