The Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomy for Diplomas Act, passed by the legislature and now Act 741 from the House Bill 1171 will offer post-secondary institutions a chance for flexibility and autonomy in exchange for meeting performance objectives.

Part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s legislative package, Jindal said, “The LA GRAD Act provides a strong incentive for our colleges and universities to increase retention and graduation rates, more closely align academic programs with workforce needs and to excel in research that will move Louisiana’s economy forward. The new law connects, for the first time ever, performance and autonomy, giving campuses and their management boards the ability to earn greater operational flexibility...help improve our institutions’ competitiveness, effectiveness and efficiency and more importantly, we can better prepare our students to compete for jobs in the 21st century.”

The initiative was embraced by the Council for a Better Louisiana and BILD, Businesses for Improving Louisiana Development including both East and West St. Tammany Chambers, Greater New Orleans, Inc. and the Baton Rouge Chamber. The act is expected to make significant changes in the delivery of nationally competitive services in teaching, research and public services of all institutions

Four strategic reforms were included in the legislation: implementation of the Louisiana Board of Regents-proposed performance funding formula; raising admission standards at four-year institutions, sole authority to adjust self-generated revenue would be granted to the system’s management boards and establishment of “center of excellence” at Louisiana Community and Technical College System campuses and the elimination of unproductive and duplicative programs.

Some of the performance criteria include raising the graduation rates of those in colleges and universities; phase in raising admission standards; encourage students who may not excel at a four-year college to consider enrolling in a two-year institution; increase the number of people who have access to programs for in-demand occupations; and increase workforce and economic development by eliminating academic programs that have low student completion rates or are not aligned with current or strategic workforce needs of the state.

CABL President Barry Erwin said, “We believe this is innovative legislation which will give our post-secondary institutions the resources they need to drive improvements in performance in a number of critical areas.”

For meeting the six-year performance agreement targets, institutions will be eligible to receive limited tuition and operational flexibility subject to the approval of their management boards.

The Board of Regents will annually monitor each institution’s progress and report to the legislature. It may revoke an institution’s agreement at any time for failure to abide with the specified terms.

In addition to financial audits, each institution will be required to submit certain organizational data in order to evaluate efficiency and overall effectiveness.