SPRINGFIELD — The interim director of the Illinois Board of
Higher Education is hopeful a combination of added infrastructure and
operations funding for state universities and colleges will help entice Illinois
students to remain in the state for their college education.
The cause of the optimism is state budget action which
provided $154 million in new operations funding and $3.2 billion in new or
reappropriated infrastructure funding to higher education.
“Obviously, the universities are very happy. This will help
take both the fiscal pressure off of them and help the universities and
community colleges look more attractive,” said Nyle Robinson, interim IBHE executive
director.
Earlier this year, the IBHE reported that 48.4 percent of
Illinois public high school graduates that enrolled in a four-year institution in
2017 chose an out-of-state school.
Robinson said he is hopeful the fiscal year 2020 budgetary
action will help reverse that trend by providing added financial aid to key
programs, increasing operational funds for universities to help them limit
tuition increases, and providing capital funding to make campuses more
enticing.
He also said an increase of $50 million to Monetary Award
Program grants for low-income students would be particularly helpful in making
college more affordable. The MAP grant program receives $451.3 million in
funding in the budget – a number Eric Zarnikow, executive director of the
Illinois Student Assistance Commission, said is the largest single-year
appropriation that program has ever received.
“It’s going to allow ISAC to serve more students and make up
some of the purchasing power that the program has lost over the years,” he said
in a statement. “Overall, this budget for higher education is going to make
college possible for more Illinois students.”
Robinson said universities from other states were able to
lure Illinois students away by offering better financial aid, but the increase
to MAP grants should help begin to counteract that trend. He added that AIM
High grants, which provide merit-based scholarships for Illinois students, will
see $10 million in added funding, bringing the total funding to $35 million.
“That program is just getting underway, but universities
report that it is changing the perception, people are looking at our public
universities again like they weren’t before,” Robinson said.
Higher education will be among the beneficiaries of a new
$45 billion capital infrastructure plan as well. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker
signed the six-year program into law last week, providing funding through sale
of bonds and new revenues generated by an increase to the motor fuel tax and a
massive gambling expansion among other measures.
Higher education will receive a $3.2 billion portion of that
money to pay for 72 projects at four-year institutions and 91 at community
colleges.
Robinson said capital expenditures of this magnitude have
been “almost nonexistent” since 2004, leading several campus buildings to slip into
dilapidation across the state.
“One aspect of attracting students back to Illinois is when
they see that the state is taking higher education seriously over an extended
period of time,” he said. “When facilities start to run down and you go to
other states and the facilities look shinier, Illinois is less attractive. So
being able to have a capital plan which lasts six years, maybe longer, will
definitely help.”
The projects include $15.8 million for a new nursing lab at
Chicago State University, $118.8 million for a new science building at Eastern
Illinois University, $89 million for renovations of Illinois State University’s
Milner Library and $83 million for a communications building at Southern
Illinois University-Carbondale among several others.
In capital funds, the University of Illinois system will receive
$815 million, Southern Illinois $295 million, Western Illinois $222 million,
Illinois State $195 million, Eastern Illinois $147 million, Northern Illinois
$140 million, Northeastern Illinois $132 million, Chicago State University $119
million and Governors State $33 million.
Community colleges will see $744 million in capital funding,
while private colleges and universities will see a total of $400 million.
In overall operations funding, community colleges, colleges
and universities will see increases of about 5 percent, with $54 million in
added funding for state four-year institutions. Robinson said this could help
universities stave off tuition increases.
“There’s reason to believe that now universities will have a
better shot at holding down their tuitions with this 5 percent increase (in
operations funding),” he said. “There’s a great desire to do so. They’ll be
able to maintain the services that students need, perhaps enhance them more,
become more attractive in those other ways that are a little less visible to
the public as well.”
The budget also includes $1 million for the “Grow Your Own”
program, which encourages Illinois parents and others connected to schools to
become teachers in the state. The Illinois Math and Science Academy will see a
3 percent funding increase of $552,000 as well.
Community college funding will be increased by 5 percent, or
$13.9 million, for operating grants and the adult education system.
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2019.
