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“A much-needed return of stability”

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Illinois

* Higher education will receive a two percent increase with next fiscal year’s budget. It’s not enough to make up for the beating the schools took during the impasse, but it’s the start of stability…

Overall, funding for public universities still lags about 8.2 percent behind what schools received in 2014-15, the last time the state approved a budget on schedule. University presidents unsuccessfully pushed the higher education board earlier this year to lobby Springfield to restore 2015-era funding. […]

But given recent instability, officials said predictable and consistent funding is more critical at this stage.

“I think there has been an awareness that the two years of the budget impasse were really very difficult for higher education to get through,” Southern Illinois President Randy Dunn said. “This increase in funding speaks to a growing understanding that public education in the state of Illinois is an investment as much as it is a cost, and something that is going to be integral in terms of job creation and economic development.”

University of Illinois leaders said in a statement Thursday: “The state’s second straight, full-year budget reflects a much-needed return of stability and reinvestment in higher education after a two-year impasse that cut sharply into funding and hampered our ability to plan our future.”

* A little history lesson…

Illinois sent more than $1.2 billion to the state’s 12 public universities in 2015, the last spending plan before the impasse. In the budgetless years, two stopgap bills in 2016 provided just $996 million in state support for public colleges over two years. [Emphasis added.]

* As with everything else, the problems were already bad before Gov. Rauner took office and his administration then made it much worse…

The state’s 12 public universities and 48 community colleges have been tightening their belts since before the drastic cuts. State funding, which typically makes up one-third of a school’s budget, had already decreased 41% from 2002 to 2015.

This trend simply has to be reversed.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:38 pm

Comments

Another defeat for Rauner. None of the campuses closed.

Comment by Roman Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:51 pm
–As with everything else, the problems were already bad before Gov. Rauner took office and his administration then made it much worse…–

And that’s how history will record it and remember him.

“Yay….history…”

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 2:03 pm
The universities must have had a lot of money hidden away to have been able to continue operations.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:31 pm
===The universities must have had a lot of money hidden away to have been able to continue operations.==

EIU couldn’t afford to mow their lawns on campus.

Your drive-by is as foolish as it is ignorant.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:36 pm
@Anonymous
Universities are required by accreditors to hold reserves. This they do, scrounging and saving it where they can. Rauner’s actions forced universities to use these reserves, in many cases completely depleting them. This put them in danger of accreditation as well as simply running out of money.

Also, to bridge the funding gap, faculty and staff were furloughed. For faculty, this meant doing the same amount of work for thousands of dollars less.

Comment by Blue Bayou Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:43 pm
Investments in transit and infrastructure, not tax cuts and shrinking gov. are the keys to growing IL
s economy. I hope for more investment in edu in the coming years. The Dems and esp Rauner have been shameful in their cutting of public university funds.

Comment by Hexagon Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:56 pm
It confuses me that a local university would need a larger budget knowing its enrollment trend will continue to decline. Is this the old” throwing good money at bad” in real time.?

Comment by BlueDogDem Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 4:56 pm
===It confuses me===

Because for whatever reason you think SIUC can and should cut its way to prosperity and success.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 4:59 pm
No Rich. Incompetence should never be rewarded. Not every endeavor in life withstands the test of time. Maybe. Just maybe a couple of our state universities have failed the test. Six university presidents. 4 governors. Sometimes things are broke beyond repair. Regrettably.

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Comment by Jessica Bonalume Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 7:33 pm