Seems like a decent idea
Tuesday, May 12, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* IDOT…
In an effort to address a nationwide shortage of people entering the profession and attract young talent, the Illinois Department of Transportation today announced a hiring initiative that will pay $15,000 of eligible student loan debt annually for up to 50 new civil engineers who graduated from Illinois schools. Payments will be capped at a total of $60,000 and begin once the engineer has worked at IDOT at least four years.
“Engineers at IDOT make a positive impact on the public every day,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi. “This program will reduce the financial burden for new engineers coming out of college and open the door to a meaningful career.”
The Higher Education Student Loan Repayment Assistance for Engineers Pilot Program will provide student loan repayment assistance in the form of an annual bonus after taxes of $15,000 a year for no more than four years. The program will be available for titles and areas with the greatest staffing needs.
To be eligible, the engineer must be hired by the department on or after July 1, 2024, and work at IDOT for four continuous years. Upcoming positions qualifying for the program will be identified in job postings.
The result of legislation proposed by Senate Majority Caucus Whip Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), the program is one of several moves by IDOT to help address a downward trend in engineering graduates and make the agency more competitive in the job market. Last fall, the department teamed with the Illinois Department of Central Management Services to start an Intern to Hire program designed to attract and retain top civil engineering talent by helping college interns transition to full-time employment at the agency upon graduation. […]
According to the most recent data from the American Council of Engineering Companies, about 184,000 engineers retire or leave the field a year while 166,000 new engineers enter the workforce, creating an annual shortfall of close to 20,000. Likewise, engineering graduates peaked at roughly 214,000 in 2019 but declined by more than 10,000 since then.
Thoughts?
- Proud Sucker - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:31 am:
Definitely a good program to try. It has similarities to teacher incentive/retention programs. IDOT needs the help.
- StarLineChicago - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:42 am:
IDOT District 1 in particular also has a location problem for young professionals: 20-somethings fresh out of college and paying Chicago-area rents don’t want to have to drive to Schaumburg, and the sole Pace bus route that came reasonably close to the District 1 office didn’t survive the pandemic.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:42 am:
So you must work for IDOT for 8 years to get max repayment, capped at $60k
The federal program pays $100k/$200k/$250k (depending) after 10 years
It would be nice to see state dollars targeted at the gaps in the federal dollars rather than duplicating those benefits.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:49 am:
Maybe I’m misunderstanding the wording and only 4 total years are required to get $60k repayment?
Still seems duplicative and aimed at recruiting rather than retention but maybe there’s something I don’t understand.
- Merica - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:50 am:
Unnecessary, the feds already provide loan forgiveness.
Try posting jobs in Chicago, you’ll get a larger more
diverse candidate pool. You shouldn’t have to move 4 hours away to an area that has < 2% of the State’s population to serve your state government
- Steve Rogers - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 11:51 am:
Illinois is one of the best engineering schools in the country. If there’s an incentive to get grads to stay in state for work, I’m for it.
- SKI - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:00 pm:
This is a good step towards recruiting engineering talent. Another good step would be returning hiring authority to IDOT with a mandate that hiring decisions be made within 60 days of posting a position. Currently it can take a year to 18 months with the quagmire known as CMS.
Secretary Biagi bragged in both appropriations hearings about reducing the number of steps it took to hire new talent. Keep going in this direction. You can’t expect a new engineer to sit around and wait for a year while the state checks off every box on a bureaucracy first process list.
- IDOn'T - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:03 pm:
There’s actually a way for IDOT to get creative in hiring? Their stonewalling on hiring mechanics for over a decade would suggest otherwise.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:22 pm:
==You shouldn’t have to move 4 hours away==
Springfield is the Capital City.
==the feds already provide loan forgiveness.==
Lol. The current Administration would like a word.
- It's Just a Pill - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:25 pm:
Whatever gets the damn permits moving, I’m in favor
- BE - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:38 pm:
==The current Administration would like a word.==
I agree. A number of programs where your student loans get forgiven, if you are a doctor or lawyer or teacher in rural areas for X years, got destroyed during Trump’s first term and now have practically no one getting approved for forgiveness.
- Michael - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:43 pm:
This could help recent grads contribute more to the Illinois 457 deferred compensation plan and have more secure retirements.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 12:45 pm:
It’s an interesting plan and I’m surprised a state agency is allowed to do it. But good for them. There are shortages in other positions in the state and if this is a thing now the state may want do consider this sort of model in other areas.
- Give Us Barabbas - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 1:05 pm:
One of the nice things about IDOT for a career engineer is that they give younger engineers more meaningful projects earlier than private sector contractors often do. The guy that I talked to about it said it would have taken him 4-5 more years in a private company to get to the equivalent level of responsibility and scale of project, compared to the state.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 1:10 pm:
=== You shouldn’t have to move 4 hours away to an area that has < 2% of the State’s population to serve your state government ===
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has the #1 Civil Engineering program in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.
It’s 90 minutes west of Springfield.
Also, the cost-of-living in Springfield is about 30% lower than Chicago.
When recruiting new hires, Springfield is a much better choice.
You’re not trying to woo someone who is tied to Chicagoland by a mortgage, spouse and kids.
If you really need to live in Wrigleyville that badly, at age 22, then an engineering gig at IDOT just isn’t a good fit for you, I guess.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 1:12 pm:
===When recruiting new hires, Springfield is a much better choice.===
If that were true, they wouldn’t need the incentive.
- The Young Gov - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 1:51 pm:
Seems like a good idea. However I wish the Pritzker Administration weren’t simultaneously proposing to cut the human service and social work state loan repayment programs we have on the books here in IL. We need engineers at IDOT, but we also need front line human service professionals and social workers.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 2:02 pm:
The Trump Admin lost in court re: several student loan changes it tried to force through
Public service loan forgiveness is far from perfect but it does exist and VERY importantly is issued via a paper writeoff from a federal gov that issues its own currency
Rather than actual dollars collected by state taxes
Helping students to navigate and feel confident about the fed process and plugging its actual holes and offering other forms of tangible support (licensing exam fees, relocation costs, real bonus) is a MUCH better use of state dollars in terms of expanding education/career access than paying the federal government’s bills for it for no reason
- Cordelia Goode - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 2:17 pm:
What if they pay for the education up front rather than waiting until after all the loans have been taken out? This approach would likely be more effective.
- Candy Dogood - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 2:36 pm:
What happened to Public Service Loan Forgiveness? You know, that PSLF that’s been around for 20 years?
Try paying them more, and or not taking months upon months to hire people so by the time we follow up with the candidate it’s almost a year after they applied and they’ve been working somewhere else for 8 months.
If you want to have a signing bonus have a signing bonus.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 3:47 pm:
==What happened to Public Service Loan Forgiveness? You know, that PSLF that’s been around for 20 years?==
People don’t understand or trust it. As a result, even before OBBA I kept hearing how this kind of idea will solve the public defense staffing crisis (also no).
OBBBA made some bad direct and indirect changes to PSLF but this program wouldn’t be tailored to those those new issues or pre-existing program loopholes.
- Candy Dogood - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 5:01 pm:
===People don’t understand or trust it.===
By all means, then, lets spend state money instead of educating folks about a federal law that has been on the books for 20 years.
===attract young talent===
It is a bit unusual to see a state agency openly engage in age discrimination in their discussions around hiring employees, though.
===To be eligible, the engineer must be hired by the department on or after July 1, 2024===
Back dating the program? What nepo engineer started a couple of years ago.
I think my previous post makes it clear that I don’t agree with this program because a federal program exists that is supposed to do this. So if you want to pay retention bonuses to employees, you should pay retention bonuses to employees.
What this specifically says is that newly hired employees will start getting 15K a year for their student loans after they’ve worked for the agency for four years. This isn’t a great incentive to come and work for the State but it might be one to stick around if you already have a job with the state. The $15,000 payments would also be above what a person who has been with the state for 4 years would be making on their income based repayment plans if they’re participating in PSLF with the added irony that this taxable benefit is going to cause their payments on their student loans to increase as they will be reporting a higher income.
So — what do we do with the engineer who has 10 years of private sector experience and comes to the State with student loan debt and works for 4 years? Are we paying those student loans?
There are a lot better ways to recruit, retain, and interest people in the profession than whatever this is. I think it is very unlikely that an 17 year old is going to choose engineering or more specifically civil engineering as their major and pursue a degree in it because they heard that the State of Illinois might pay them $60,000 to help them with their student loans after they’ve worked there for 4 years.
===In an effort to address a nationwide shortage of people entering the profession and attract young talent===
It is very clear that this program does not do what they are saying they’re trying to do. Especially when the last I checked our state universities were making people pay extra to study engineering.
- Mr. Middlegroun - Tuesday, May 12, 26 @ 9:36 pm:
This is a great idea. Let’s try it. We should also consider expanding this to all Illinois high school graduates who stay in Illinois for college and then commit to live and work in Illinois for a period of time. Let’s tie this to MAP grants and continue to expand this. They shouldn’t be grants but rather forgivable loans that help retain our residents—thereby growing our tax base.