Limited funding prevents budget instability. Substantial funding recognizes the priority and difficulty of producing results in higher education. About three to six percent of state general fund support seems a reasonable amount. Discretionary spending makes even small sums effective, when mandated expenditures absorb almost all of campus budgets 9. Additional rather than reallocated resources as the funding source .
Additional money makes performance funding or budgeting a desirable project on campus.
It becomes a funded initiative rather than another activity competing for limited resources. Continuity of state priorities and program requirements. State priorities and program requirements must continue long enough to allow campuses to produce the desired and demanding results. Performance programs require a patience and persistence rarely founding in state policy making. If governors and legislators want improved performance from state colleges and universities, they must abandon their penchant for swift solutions and instant successes.