Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Why has tuition increased so much? State funding cuts are a big reason

Posted in:

Illinois

* Before Rod Blagojevich was elected governor in 2002, Illinois had an unwritten rule that higher education received $1 for every $2 received by K-12. Blagojevich believed universities were too top-heavy, so he cut their budgets year after year. That trend continued through two successive governors. From the Illinois Board of Higher Education…

2002 was the peak year for state appropriation support for Illinois public universities ($1.5 billion). When accounting for inflation and new, unfunded mandates public university operations funding for Fiscal Year 2018 is less than half of what it was in Fiscal Year 2002 ($736 million in 2018 relative to $1.5 billion in 2002). [Emphasis added.]

Yikes. Let that sink in for a moment. Less than half.

* They now turn to a more recent timeline…

In Fiscal Year 2017 general funds covered just 37.8% of public university revenue, with UIF covering the remaining 62.2%. In comparing 2010 and 2017, total revenue is nearly identical in both years (difference of +0.1%) after making an inflationary adjustment using the consumer price index (CPI). The decline in state appropriations to public universities from 2010 to 2017 (-22.8%) roughly parallels the increase in university income funds (+22.2%)

The accompanying graph…

* So, adjusted for CPI, overall higher education spending has leveled off, but state funding has plummeted. They gotta pick up the slack somewhere else.

And, according to IBHE, if you adjust for the Higher Education Price Index, total higher education spending has lagged by 4.5 percent, meaning the universities are doing their part to control costs while the state slashes its own funding.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:19 pm

Comments

It is due to Rauner’s lack of budgets for the past 4 years to fund Illinois Higher Education.

Comment by Mama Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:26 pm
===…meaning the universities are doing their part to control costs while the state slashes its own funding.===

It can’t be overstated.

Raunerites that have let down the state universities in their districts during the 99th GA aided and abetted Bruce Rauner’s desire to close state universities, by ensuring the slashing was far worse… by refusing to even fund… the slashed levels of the past.

I’m not worried.

Mr. Barickman will teach his class at Illinois State, Mr. Rose will continue to hope others forget… steps to reform Illinois were more important than a short term budget stalemate… and higher education too.

I’m ready to discuss funding higher education, revamping higher education, even how to market and get back our Illinois students from now on… but don’t tell me Rauner is “just like others”… it insults my intelligence.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:30 pm
https://thesouthern.com/news/local/siu/analysis-siu-president-said-he-was-neutral-on-campus-split/article_49deb55c-d575-563b-992b-d2ff1b268f66.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Comment by Saluki Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:31 pm
Other states are paying IL students more money to attend their colleges. Following the money..

Comment by Mama Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:33 pm
And that’s just tuition. Fees have also shot up, because the “more desirable” campuses want to stay more desirable by building Taj Mahal Rec Centers, Dorms, Student Centers, you name it. The empire-building AD at UIUC who hasn’t produced a winning football or hoops team yet wants $201 million in new construction for non-revenue sports, including a Hockey stadium for a team we don’t have yet. He says he’ll raise the dough, which is what the guy before him said before $60 million of State Farm Center costs got shuffled off to student fees. A buddy of AA’s is the Big U’s in-house bond salesman and works 12-hour days-wonder why?

Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:37 pm
==Illinois had an unwritten rule that higher education received $1 for every $2 received by K-12.==

Too late. We’ve put all our education eggs in the K-12 basket.

Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:40 pm
===Too late.===

So you won’t revisit it? Hmm.

- AA -

Here’s a list of the top 25 revenue generating college athletic programs.

Schools at the top, they add building and facilities while also funding athletics for the universities.

Think on this, bud.

Having athletics as a revenue stream to make a university more attractive and more enticing. Might keep students from going to PAC 12, SEC, or other B1G schools… like those listen making significant monies to help with infrastructure, as well as perception.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:47 pm
==So you won’t revisit it?==

You have another basket?

Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:54 pm
The State provides the universities with 38% of their revenue, yet our school district only sees the State provide 12.7% of our revenue.

The State is constitutionally required to fund elementary education, but has no such mandate for university funding. Yet spends substantially more on universities than on its mandated responsibility to elementary education.

Please spare me the crocodile tears shed for our state university administrators that can’t seem to provide a quality product with an affordable cost structure.

Comment by Occam Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:54 pm
Occam, before you go on another stupid tirade here, avoid doing another goofy apples and orangutan comparison.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:56 pm
===You have another basket?===

Then those making that argument… which universities do you want closed? That’s where Rauner and Raunerites have put Higher Ed.

Which towns are ya gonna tell you plan on making them all but extinct.

I’ve made my case here, “ad nauseum”… you know that too.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:57 pm
=Please spare me the crocodile tears shed for our state university administrators that can’t seem to provide a quality product with an affordable cost structure.=

So it is an issue of low quality gets no funding then. What basis do you have that Illinois’ public universities are lower quality than say other schools in other states? Why are you trashing Illinois and its universities? I would like to know.

Comment by lost in the weeds Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:00 pm
==Then those makingbtgat argument. That’s where Rauner and Raunerites ha Elbe Higher Ed.==

Calling 911, medical emergency in Oswego, man down searching for magical money basket…

Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:01 pm
==which universities do you want closed?==

None. Which current expenditures do you suggest we redirect to higher ed? How about $100 of that $300 in the K-12 basket?

Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:03 pm
===man down searching for magical money basket…===

I’ve stated, the Lincoln University system, 3 pronged, marketed with three pods, and the state funding the levels consistent with 2002, but within the pods, the universities continue their missions.

Again, - City Zen -

Which universities do you want closed?

Why won’t Rauner tell Carbondale, Macomb, or Charleston that their schools need to be scuttled?

Why?

Why passively?

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:05 pm
===None.===

You want none purposely closed, but you’ll fund them to starve to death?

Are you Bruce Rauner? Mr. Barickman?

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:06 pm
@- Occam - Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 3:54 pm:

===The State provides the universities with 38% of their revenue, yet our school district only sees the State provide 12.7% of our revenue.===

The state provides a base rate per student per day attended. Local property tax provides most of the other funding, and is where it gets confusing. If your school district residents want more funding for their schools, they vote for referendums to raise their own property taxes. The local amount of money AND local percentage of the total goes up.

Comment by DuPage Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:09 pm
==DuPage==

I know how the State provides funding for K-12 education. All in, we receive $1,673 per pupil annually. Our OEPP is over $10,000.

Almost all of that shortfall has to be covered by property taxes. Which means that property tax rates are inflated and cause homes to be unaffordable and causes an ever increasing number of people to leave this state (see: the numerous articles on this site regarding the population exodus).

Comment by Occam Friday, Jun 29, 18 @ 4:22 pm