Fiscal Strategies to Stimulate Instructional Innovation and Change.
Can state fiscal and budgetary strategies be employed successfully to create incentives for instructional innovation in colleges and universities? In analysis of this issue, it is acknowledged that the primary responsibility for implementing new instructional methods and programs rests with institutional faculty. However, the mechanisms utilized by state decision makers to finance public higher education may also be observed to affect the degree and rate of instructional experimentation in public colleges and universities. Although state budget decision makers often do not understand many of the consequences of their decisions in appropriating state funding to higher education institutions, their actions define important aspects of academic programs for universities and colleges. That this is true will not come as a shock to students of education finance, nor to state and institutional administrators. State decision makers have long attempted to influence behavior in public universities and colleges and are familiar with strategies for accomplishing this end. However, strategy setting by state-level decision makers has not received the attention it deserves, although some efforts have been made in this regard. In his study of secondary schools, Pincus points out that rates and types