69 Comments - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:09 pm: Cheaper to pay out of state tuition at any of the Iowa regent universities than it is to pay in state tuition at the Illinois universities I’ve checked. That’s the kind of decision we’re asking folks to make. - Retired Educator - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:11 pm: Enrollment at the City Colleges of Chicago also suffered due to a wildly unqualified chancellor with a plan to use shuttle buses to transport students all over the city because she felt every college major needed to be specific to a single campus rather than most majors being available district-wide. Enrollment plunged under this plan. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:11 pm: Bruce Rauner has yet to fully fund state universities for a whole year. Bruce Rauner, this fiscal year, vetoed every budgetary dime to Illinois Higher Education. Since Bruce Rauner has been illinois’ governor, how can high school seniors see Ilinois universities as a priority for Rauner’s administration? - Ghost - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:12 pm: So how did Rauners refusal to pass a budget help our economy? which proposal was he pushing that would have made the state over a billion a year to offset this dmg? - Carhartt Union Negotiating Team - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:13 pm: If we could just get that Turnaround Agenda, we wouldn’t need higher education. We ought to strive to be “the workshop” of the nation - a place that will make low wage southern states blush. That’s what we need, Madigan! - Blue dog dem - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:15 pm: I have been waiting for this post. Folks. Come down to Carbondale. It’ll take you five minutes on a Friday night. Show up around 7:00 pm. Tell me how comforatable you feel. For thw better part of my life i have lived within 8 miles of campus. The age,decay and general unsafe environment is a turnoff to many. - Keyrock - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:15 pm: A feature, not a big. - DownstateKid - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:16 pm: Cheaper to go to neighboring states than Illinois and it’s been that way for at least a decade. Outside of SIUE, very few good deals in Illinois. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:16 pm: It’s true. I bet those missing 72,000 are disproportionally male. - Keyrock - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:16 pm: Not a bug. (Auto correct did that. Sorry.) - Rich Miller - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:17 pm: ===Tell me how comforatable you feel=== I was just down there. I felt fine. What, pray tell, makes you so uncomfortable? - LXB - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:23 pm: I live in Carbondale and teach at SIU. It’s fine here. Frankly, it would be better if downtown were a little noisier on the weekends, because this is a college town that looks empty most of the time. - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:23 pm: Whoever wins the D primary better hammer Rauner on this over and over. - Grandson of Man - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:24 pm: This is brutal, Part II. Rauner has intentionally caused massive damage to the state. He must be made to own this politically. - Inspector Gadget - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:24 pm: Tuition in Illinois is out of control at all state schools. I have four in college,3 at a Catholic school in Minnesota and one in Kansas. The three cost me 8,500/ 9,200/and 11,500.It fluctuates because of GPA and award money. Kansas 10k total room and board. Kansas has a mid west transfer credit of 10k per student who meets certain academic requirements. Of my sons graduating class this year, from a well known Catholic High School more the 70% went out of state. - old pol - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:27 pm: The Universities did this to themselves with their bloated administration and ridiculous salaries. They have not learned and are now embarking on another recruiting boondoggle with inflated pay and benefit offers, i’m sure. The GA needs to quickly set limits and use bordering states as benchmarks for tuition and pay. - igotgotgotgotnotime - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:27 pm: Illinois resident tuition and expenses are way, way cheaper than paying out of state anywhere. Anybody with the ‘google’ can verify that. These assertions otherwise are just ridiculous. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:32 pm: - igotgotgotgotnotime - In many, many instances… Illinois students can go to schools in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, and Missouri for far cheaper than any Illinois university. - DuPage - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:35 pm: The damage to Illinois community colleges and state universities is deep and will go on for many years, all thanks to Rauner’s irresponsible budget antics these last 2 years. “Never so much (damage), done by so few (1 person), in so little time.” - JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:36 pm: Nice work all around/s - Soccermom - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:37 pm: This is unconscionable. - Morty - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:40 pm: Well worth it because of Rauner’s reforms No, wait, it totally wasn’t - Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:42 pm: –Illinois resident tuition and expenses are way, way cheaper than paying out of state anywhere. Anybody with the ‘google’ can verify that. These assertions otherwise are just ridiculous.– If you are googling list prices sure. Once you factor in financial aid awards, however, it’s a very different story. Only the final number presented to a student matters. - illini - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:42 pm: And how many of these 72,000 students will return to Illinois and become productive, taxpaying citizens? Way to go Bruce, and Thank You. - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:42 pm: Oh come on. Unsafe in downtown Carbondale? Puh-leeze. I just had my kids there walking around and it was fine. In fact the city looks better than ever with all the sidewalk repairs and burying the overhead powerlines. - BigDoggie - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:44 pm: Some of the generalities being thrown around are not accurate. I’ve got one out of college, one in college, and one heading off next year. I’ve done lots of homework on this issue. In state public is generally lower cost than almost all out of state, with the exception of Champaign, where you pay a bit of a premium. However, IL residents do get a really good deal at all state schools in WI except Madison. UW Milwaukee will cost you about the same as Illinois State. One factor that does come into play - you will rarely get any merit scholarship money for IL public universities, while you may have a better shot at some publics in other states, and definitely at private schools, which may equate the costs some. There is no doubt though that the financial issues in IL have hurt the colleges here - I have essentially told my HS senior to not even consider in-state colleges. If he manages to get accepted at Champaign, I’d allow that, but otherwise he’s leaving the state. - Thomas Paine - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:45 pm: I believe this would mean that it is Bruce Eauner who is largely responsible for the spike in U-Haul rentals and mass Expedia from our state. - Confused - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:47 pm: My son goes to UW Platteville under some Tristate Initiative for less than I could send him to NIU or ISU. - Sad to see - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:49 pm: Carbondale campus looks frumpy and worn. It should be a gem, but little is spent on maintenance. The school is dying of neglect and it shows in the whole town. Quit consuming the capitol investment in SIU through neglect. Spend some money to maintain what is there. - City Zen - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:51 pm: EIU Total Fall enrollment by year: 2008 = 12,040 2010 = 11,630 2012 = 10,417 2014 = 8,913 2016 = 7,415 Quinn or Rauner, tax hike or tax reduction, (un)balanced budget or budget impasse…EIU’s decline cannot be attributed to just one thing. Maybe IEPI’s next report will focus on the cost was of losing 25% enrollment during Quinn’s regime. - Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:52 pm: I discussed the out-of-state flight of graduating HS seniors with a number of Republican and Democratic legislators while making the rounds in the Capitol this past May. All of them understood the impact and, with one notable exception, were very concerned. Many of them voted to override the Governor’s budget veto. The exception was Sen. Oberweis. He told me and the folks I was with that this loss of students was a good thing because other states were paying to educate our kids. How does one respond to that kind of disregard for the future of our state? - Anon - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:55 pm: We had a big tax increase that still doesn’t balance the budget. Where do people suggest getting even more money we don’t have to throw at Illinois universities when we can’t compete on price with neighboring states? Why does everything always seem to have to cost so much more in Illinois? The usual suspects complain about “full funding” instead of looking at why the cost is so darn high as the real problem. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:57 pm: ===Maybe IEPI’s next report will focus on the cost was of losing 25% enrollment during Quinn’s regime.=== Yeah, because not fully funding state universities for 3 consecutive fiscal years as the governor means nothing when marketing to high school seniors. If it wasn’t for the “Brave 15″, the “Perfect 10″, you’d have those like Ms. Wheeler cheering that state universities wouldn’t get a dine this fiscal year. It’s like you have blinders on. Rauner beat Quinn. That battle is over. Get over it. Today? Rauner wants state universities closed, and students and counselors know it, and parents are sending students elsewhere. Democrats and the “Brave 15″, the “Perfect 10″, Sen. Righter actually want state universities funded here. Quinn was no where around. - City Zen - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:58 pm: SIU experienced a 10% decline in enrollment from 2011 to 2013. We had a budget those years plus a windfall of cash from the 2 percentage point hike in the state income tax. Why no growth? - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 3:59 pm: Another disastrous element of the destructive reign of Awful Bruce. - Johnney - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:00 pm: The most prominent variable is the our “Governor Veto”. Can you think of any others? - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:00 pm: I follow the same economic philosophy as Oberweis. I make sure to buy all of my dairy products from someone other than him. - Filmmaker prof - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:02 pm: Not sure how they defined the “East Central” region, because U of I Urbana-Champaign had an all-time record enrollment last year, and at today’s Board of Trustees meeting it was announced that this year is going to beat last year’s record. So the loss of students is definitely not from UIUC. - Ron - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:04 pm: Most Illinois public universities are sply boring. - Wensicia - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:05 pm: Without the MAP grants, how many low-income high school graduates opted not to attend community colleges at all? A few thousand in my county. Those who found a way to come up with the cash to attend last year received their delayed grants last month. - Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:09 pm: Enrollment declines can be traced back to around 2000, when the state began cutting funding (direct and student aid). As the funding was cut, tuition rose while programs shrunk or were closed, affordability declined, and enrollments dropped. One might wonder if this due to a decline in graduating seniors, but that has been offset by a higher percentage entering higher ed. When you look at the big picture, you find graduating seniors migrating from Illinois to neighboring states but a much smaller number of seniors from those states choosing to come to Illinois. That net loss has been steadily growing since 2000. If you think this report looks bad, it only looks at losses through 2016. In the Spring of 2017, there was another round of layoffs impacting faculty and staff. Imagine how that looked to graduating seniors making a commitment. Do you go to a college or university that is shedding faculty and programs? Will your program be next? Why take that chance even if it saves a few dollars? What does the loss of those graduating HS seniors do to higher ed for the next four years? - anon - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:11 pm: The budget impasse was the factor that tipped the balance, but Illinois public universities have been pricing out students for a decade. And a lot of things contributed to the problem: tuition outpacing inflation, bloated administrations, the fact that our flag ship university wants to be a global destination at the expense of providing merit aid to deserving Illinois natives. Then layer on the budget debacle and you have the mess we are currently in. The damage will not be easy to reverse and what Sen. Oberweis doesn’t realize is that once kids leave state, they often do not come home. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:17 pm: There are different factors at play though the budget impasse was a significant problem. SIUC is facing tough demographic changes in the region with fewer young people in the area. I appreciated the article with the new Chancellor who seems to be saying the right things including right sizing the institution. - Bigtwich - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:23 pm: Bdd I was around Carbondale for most of the 60s. As I remember it the age,decay and general unsafe environment wasa turnoff to many, over 30. - Anon - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:28 pm: This is a microcosm of every problem currently afflicting the state. Everything in Illinois just costs too much. Tuition, property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, workman’s comp, running a business……..everything in Illinois comes back to how crazy expensive it is to exist in this state compared to our neighbors. Yet the solution looked to by so many in this state always comes back to how can we make it even worse by making life in Illinois even more expensive. The answer to bringing down costs isn’t to raise the price even more. Sadly in Illinois that seems to be the only policy prescription even deemed to be acceptable. - Piece of Work - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:29 pm: Please don’t compare UIUC to Wisconsin-Platteville, Mizzou or Iowa, etc. A Ford Focus doesn’t cost as much as a Ford Expedition and there is a reason. I haven’t looked it up but I suspect UIUC has another year of record freshman enrollment. Willy moans and groans about EIU but just won’t accept the downward trend in enrollment started around 2006/7(anybody remember the financial meltdown?) along with complete mismanagement by the EIU brass. I had a relative ask me why was it so easy to get accepted to the University of Iowa. Hmmmm - illdoc - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:29 pm: From the Illinois Board of Higher Education “Since fiscal year 2000, state operating appropriations for universities, community colleges, ISAC and other grants have decreased $987 million, or 34 percent, after adjusting for inflation.” As state support dropped, unfortunately tuition went up to compensate - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:30 pm: ===I live in Carbondale and teach at SIU. It’s fine here. === Anecdotes aren’t as good as economic data. - illini - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 4:44 pm: My family has 16 years to go before the next generation and their parents will be making decisions on colleges. Does anyone think that this is enough time to correct, improve and revitalize Higher Ed in this state? - City Zen - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 5:20 pm: ==“Since fiscal year 2000, state operating appropriations for universities, community colleges, ISAC and other grants have decreased $987 million, or 34 percent, after adjusting for inflation.” As state support dropped, unfortunately tuition went up to compensate== Purdue University experienced a 32% drop in real dollars from 2000-2013 and their state appropriation has stagnated as well. Their tuition has been frozen for 5 years running now. - LXB - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 5:43 pm: “Anecdotes aren’t as good as economic data.” I’m referring specifically to the issue of safety. - Turn Around For What? - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 5:55 pm: =Tell me how comforatable you feel.= I am very comfortable when I am in Carbondale. - Anon - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 5:56 pm: Illini- No, the 16 years won’t be enough to do anything about revitalizing higher ed. Any new dollars raised through even higher taxes over that period are already ear-marked for pension obligations. Part of living in Illinois is coming to terms with the idea that you are going to see much higher taxes in the coming years while at the same time likely seeing services cut and education funding decreased. There just isn’t going to be money in the budget since pensions are going to be swallowing a rapidly increasing larger part of the general fund that might have otherwise went to expansion of services or education. The current and next generation will find themselves paying the bill for the sins of the prior generation and there is not a thing that can be done to prevent it from happening. - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 6:02 pm: Families make their decision about college choices based on lots of reasons. It’s not only about dollars paid but by environment, quality of the college experience, job prospects, etc. And some of those families are just fed up with this state and how leadership thumbs their noses at it’s citizens, some of which are students. My kids went to a Big Ten out of state and complete with merit scholarships, we paid just about what we’d pay instate at UIUC. They got degrees that earned them great jobs in that state and they have very positive, happy memories of a great university experience without all the hand-wringing and disparaging of Education that goes on here. That’s worth something. It’s also worth something to have a supportive community and state that values it’s grads. A state that recognizes the value of higher ed. If the only determiner was cost of tuition and fastest way to a degree, kids wouldn’t leave home. - ste_with_a_v_en - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 6:31 pm: “Iowa was a bargain. It offered a financial aid package that brought costs down to about $16,000 a year—20 percent less than she’d have paid at Illinois, even with in-state tuition” “At Urbana, in-state rates rose 59 percent over the past 10 years, to a minimum of $15,700 and a maximum of $20,700 (not including room and board), depending on the major. At the same time, financial aid through the state’s Monetary Award Program, which provides need-based grants to residents, doesn’t go as far as it used to.” Simple cost effectiveness - Arock - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 6:31 pm: When you run up a large debt(pension and unfunded retiree healthcare) those interest payments lead to cuts in other areas of the budget and this has affected every area and program in Illinois and will continue to have even a lager affect from now on. Twenty five percent of the budget for past debt, but hell let’s keep the same Bozo’s in leadership roles. - NorthsideNoMore - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 9:55 pm: igotigot ad infinitum Incorrect …Just shipped my kid off to a Missouri school by the time he got his scholarship moneies and other grants the cost to stay in once great state of Illinois it is not cheaper. 30 on ACT and Illinois state scholar etc dont get you as much as you think. Other states university systems are recruiting here they will waive certain (not just out of state) fees and find grants for students and that didn’t happen here Lincoln land. Another thing to consider is simply the offerings at Illinois state colleges. NIU EIU SIU WIU are promarily teaching schools SIU has engineering and medicine so can be considered a technical school as well. ISU a business school Otherwise whole lot of kids are competing with a whole lot of foreigners to get into the U of I for a professional technical education. - blue dog dem - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 10:24 pm: Rich. You are a young,strong middle age man. Not much intimidates guys like you. Get some age behind you. Or, be a 18 yr old girl and see how how large crowds of loitering groups put you at unease. I know its not just me, but look at SIUC’s enrollmemt over the last 20 yrs. I wish it were not the case, but I fear the Saluki may become extinct. Again. - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 10:48 pm: Willy’s intense dislike for Rauner seems to blind him to the fact that the cuts to higher ed started almost a decade and a half before Rauner became governor. Undeniably, things have gotten worse, but it is mendacious to say that Rauner is completely to blame for what started under his predecessors. - swILL - Thursday, Sep 7, 17 @ 11:28 pm: Agree with igotgotgotgotnotime. Out of state tuition is usually WAY more: Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota. Some schools near the border (Murray State, UMSL) are equal or less. If your ACT score is high enough, you can get the instate rate at Purdue, Ole Miss, Alabama. Also, EIU’s enrollment news must be pretty bad, but there was good news this week when Charleston was voted the second safest college town in America. Add your own punchline. - Cousin Lou - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 5:36 am: The cost of a college education, and the associated debt that results is the latest financial bubble that is going to pop. This is a very complicated issue that has been years in the making. To blame it on one person is a gross oversimplification of the issue. The cost of an in state college education in Illinois is not necessarily competitive. Midwest colleges target Illinois students, and there is an inclination by a large percentage of students to leave the state for a variety of reasons. Going to U of I is no longer the cool thing to do and is frowned upon. The reputation of U of I has been damaged over the last 10 years, not because of the Governor, but through their own mismanagement. There was one embarrassing article after another for a few years. The crime alerts that are sent out to parents of students by U of I occur all too often, and these are violent crimes. No one should be surprised. I say this as a proud parent of two U of I graduates, who graduated wihin the past two years and are thankfully employed. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 6:18 am: ===Undeniably, things have gotten worse,=== 1) Pick a name, ugh. 2) Yeah, I stopped there, lol - Anon - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 6:20 am: IL universities have had a tough decade or so but there’s no question that Rauner coming in wasnt just the straw that broke the camels back but rather he used a crane and dropped bricks on the camels back. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 6:26 am: I do find it comical that individuals commenting seem oblivious that when a governor refuses to fund anything, and in this case higher education, that refusal is a governor trying to purposely close state universities and diminish the ones left. If a governor wanted a prison closed, a state park closed, an agency closed, a governor just doesn’t fund them. Keep up, that’s what Rauner has personally done with higher education. - My thoughts - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 7:21 am: Enrollment at NIU dropped 16.7% between 2009 to 2014, EIU dropped 26% from 2008 to 2014, WIU dropped 17.1% from 2008 to 2014, this is a pattern that has played out across most of Illinois public colleges before Rauner took office. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 7:29 am: (Sigh) Then why won’t Rauner publicly say he wants state universities closed? You think on that, get back to me, lol It’s like the blindness to the squeezing of the beast, but not admitting… “I want Eastern, Western, NEIU, one SIU campus closed” - the budgetary decisions of Bruce Rauner If y’all are so concerned about this “ongoing pattern” that’s been exacerbated by Rauner’s three budgetary years… … why won’t Rauner just admit and say, “I want state universities closed”? If you can’t explain that, then maybe y’all you rethink your premise that “this has been going on”. I know you can’t, so… - My thoughts - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 9:01 am: In the recent budget that was both written and passed by the legislature, how much of an increase did the legislature fund higher education? - lake county democrat - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 9:06 am: From the little I’ve seen of Wallace I like her - she doesn’t seem to grandstand, seems attentive to bringing home the bacon for her constituents and has an interest in human rights. It would be a little tragicomic if all of the lt. governor selections of those get on the primary ballot turn out to be African-American women. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 17 @ 9:07 am: Rauner vetoed Higher Education funding. Any monies higher than ZERO is more than Rauner has funded, let alone a full year of funding, something Rauner has yet to do for Higher Education. You fund something at a rate of ZERO you don’t want it to exist. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.