Senate Finance and Taxation Education committee Chair Arthur Orr, R-Decatur leads the committee's meeting on April 9, 2025 in Montgomery, Ala. Orr is exploring a new funding model for higher education. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector) The Senator chair for Alabama’s education budget committee is working on drafting a bill that could change how some higher education institutions are funded. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said in an interview Friday the new model, called outcomes based funding, could push the public colleges and universities in the state to attain better graduation rates, increase workforce participation and help with research. “How can we incentivize certain institutions to help them keep those students in school? Well, it all takes money. It takes resources. So the money that we would provide, we would say, ‘Okay, college, your four year graduation right now is 8%. We’d like to see that next year get to 10% or 12%.’ It’s gonna take time, but we’re going to reward...