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Student enrollment at Illinois public universities is down again this year, but state budget outlays for the 11 schools is up.

OK, stop right there. Illinois is currently spending about $200 million less on higher education than it did before the impasse. And it’s spending about half what it did in Fiscal Year 2000. Year-over-year budgeting numbers are only relevant if that’s been the general trend. Annual funding increases have most definitely not been a trend for two decades.

* Back to the piece…

“There is plenty of evidence that we need to be doing something differently, and we can’t continue to do the same thing with the limited resources we have and expect different results,” says Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog. […]

Nyle Robinson, interim executive director at the Illinois Board of Higher Education, says there’s a “master plan” in place and points to the June 2009 “Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success” issued under former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Still, he notes that a mainly new board is “starting the process of developing a new master plan” that he expects will take a year.

The 2009 report makes no mention of the Illinois net outflow of college-bound students that has been picking up momentum since 2011. Back in 2002, 29 percent of Illinois high school graduates left the state to go to four-year colleges, but by 2017, the most recent year for which the board published data, the percentage jumped to 48 percent, with nearly half of Illinois students exiting the state.

And it’s no wonder why they exited. We as a state allowed our campuses to slowly deteriorate and then the impasse came along and… Whammo.

Important history cannot be ignored.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 1:27 pm

Comments

==And it’s spending about half what it did in Fiscal Year 2000==

And if we were contributing only $240 million to SURS, like we did in 2000, instead of $1.6 billion, as we did in 2018, we wouldn’t be spending half. Well, half for operating expenses.

Adjusting for inflation, we’re still spending as much as we ever did on higher ed. Unfortunately, ever growing chunks go to the pension system.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 1:41 pm
City Zen: “PENSIONSPENSIONSPENSIONSPENSIONS”

Dude, don’t you ever get tired of your racket? Sigh

Comment by Perrid Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 1:45 pm
=== Adjusting for inflation, we’re still spending as much as we ever did on higher ed. Unfortunately, ever growing chunks go to the pension system.===

(Sigh)

“Unfortunately, ever growing chunks go to the pension system.”

If I have a dollar. This dollars is for “sweets”. Split it half, half for candy, half for cookie… then take another dollar, 40 cents for candy, 60 cents for cookies, I’m spending less for candy, even if sweets is still a dollar.

The amount allocated for higher ed isn’t what it was 20 years ago.

This is restaurant quality summation;

=== We as a state allowed our campuses to slowly deteriorate and then the impasse came along and… Whammo.===

Exactly right.

Higher ed was being gutted, Rauner then decided not to fully fund higher ed at all.

The exacerbation of the destroying of higher ed in the past Administration was catastrophic, even compared to the destruction of the past.

=== Nyle Robinson, interim executive director at the Illinois Board of Higher Education, says there’s a “master plan” in place and points to the June 2009 “Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success” issued under former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Still, he notes that a mainly new board is “starting the process of developing a new master plan” that he expects will take a year.===

There needs to be a real plan, an honest plan, a plan that also looks at this honestly too;

=== The 2009 report makes no mention of the Illinois net outflow of college-bound students that has been picking up momentum since 2011. Back in 2002, 29 percent of Illinois high school graduates left the state to go to four-year colleges, but by 2017, the most recent year for which the board published data, the percentage jumped to 48 percent, with nearly half of Illinois students exiting the state.===

Merit scholarships and a revamping of the schools not University of Illinois affiliated needs to address attracting and keeping Illinois students.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 1:52 pm
My daughter is going to SIUe. She had other options but chose SIUe. Campus is very nice, they have the program she wants and it is highly regarded.

SIUe does an outstanding job of letting you know they want you. The usual mailers and emails are fine, everyone does those. But we also received calls from students in the program she wants, the campus visit was run by students and younger staff. There is ore, but that personal touch went a long way.

The cost for SIUe is still going to require us to take on some debt, even with scholarships. Just over $22k for the full cost is better than many state schools in one of the nicest and newest settings.

@CZ- You run the legislation to fund a time machine so we can go back to 1920 and start paying the pensions off. I will back yo all the way.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:12 pm
My recommendation would be to look at rebranding/restructuring. Western and Eastern could become part of ISU and be called Illinois State University - Charleston and Illinois State University - Macomb. Every other large state has university systems rather than one-off universities and that would help better allocate resources.

Comment by Chicagonk Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:15 pm
===Important history cannot be ignored.===

Sadly, inconvenient history often is ignored.

Comment by MSIX Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:54 pm
@ Chicagonk. This is not the worst idea I have heard this week.

Comment by Scamp640 Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:55 pm
Anyone that opines that the UIUC campus has deteriorated, has not visited the campus.

Comment by Pick a Name Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:56 pm
=== Anyone that opines that the UIUC campus has deteriorated, has not visited the campus.===

Your “full tuition” payments well spent, LOL

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 3:00 pm
=== We as a state allowed our campuses to slowly deteriorate and then the impasse came along and… Whammo.===

That “whammo” can be translated mostly to the loss of MAP grants. I’m a current part-time college student, and I can tell you for myself and the classmates I’ve spoken to about this, that was definitely a “whammo”. Loss of those grants really hurt enrollment. That decision had nothing to do with FY2000 pension payments, it had everything to do with CZ’s boy Bruce Rauner deciding he wanted to axe the grants (and everything else) out of spite.

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 3:02 pm
@ Chicagonk: I’ve been thinking along the same lines. Realign teh state univerities into three systems–Illinois State (ISU plus whichever univerities opted to join), U of I (the three U of I schools plus other universities that opted to join), and Chicago State (NEIU, CSU, and Governors State). The Illinois State system emphasizes a good balance of decent programs, the U of I system has each campus take a few subjects to specialize in (think political science and public policy at UIS, or architecture and social work at UIC), and the Chicago State schools are run as one metropolitan university system. It would solve the problem of branding, specialization vs. generalization, and in-state cannibalization of students.

Just an idea.

Comment by Benjamin Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 3:04 pm
==You run the legislation to fund a time machine so we can go back to 1920 and start paying the pensions off. ==

You think I’m wasting a time machine trip on Illinois’ pension woes?

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 3:09 pm
Willy, that would be my full tuition payments well INVESTED.

Comment by Pick a Name Wednesday, Oct 16, 19 @ 8:26 am
=== that would be my full tuition payments well INVESTED===

You just played yourself. Congratulations, lol

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Oct 16, 19 @ 8:36 am