Performance funding programs: Assessing their stability

State programs of performance funding for public colleges and universities are both popular and volatile. A previous article identified some characteristics of stable programs by comparing the survey responses of state and campus leaders from Tennessee and Missouri about their mature programs with those from four states that later dropped performance funding. This article uses those characteristics to assess the stability of the continuing programs in Florida, Ohio, and South Carolina. This article compares the survey responses of state and campus leaders from each of these three states about their programs with those from Missouri and Tennessee. The findings suggest trouble for these three programs, for they share few of the characteristics common to the stable programs in Missouri and Tennessee.