Lawmakers don't often have the opportunity to consider transformative policy proposals. Legislative changes usually occur in stages.
But in early March, the state's Commission on Equitable Funding of Public Universities asked the Illinois General Assembly and Governor to not only transform how the state invests in public universities, but also build Illinois' universities. published a report making a series of recommendations. Help eliminate the historical inequalities that low-income and minority students have faced in enrolling and graduating from college.
The idea behind the commission was to have a panel of experts decide how to fund higher education in the state, said Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, one of the commission's co-chairs. The idea was born out of a request from the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to have the bill considered. It could be reformed to “promote equity of access to college for traditionally underrepresented student populations in general and Black and Brown students in particular.”
The commission is also tasked with providing some stability in public university funding and making recommendations on how to quantify funding levels sufficient for each university to fulfill its mission and meet the educational needs of current students. I owed it. , more diverse students will enroll and graduate in the future.
In its report, the committee identified parameters for funding formulas that meet each legislative mandate. The proposed formula, the first of its kind in the nation, covers everything from the day-to-day costs of facility operations and faculty salaries to mission-specific activities and traditional alumni attraction and graduation success. We take everything into consideration, right down to the scientifically-based programs needed to achieve this goal. low-income, rural, minority, or special needs student populations;
Funding this new formulation would cost approximately $1.4 billion, but the committee recommends it be done over a period of time. For example, to fully fund the inflation-adjusted $1.4 billion over 10 years, Illinois would need to increase general funding for higher education by $135 million each year over 10 years.
This approach would provide much-needed stability in higher education funding and allow public universities to plan their budgets carefully. This would be a significant improvement over past practice, where higher education funding not only fluctuated significantly over time, but has actually been cut by more than 40 percent in real terms since fiscal year 2000. .
As it turns out, Illinois' long-term disinvestment in higher education was a very bad move for a variety of reasons. Let's start with some simple economics. The correlation between economic viability and educational attainment has never been stronger. Consider that in 1979, people with a bachelor's degree or higher earned 38 percent more than high school graduates. By 2022, that gap had ballooned to 85%. Cutting higher education funding in this environment is counterproductive at best. Oh, and studies show that for every dollar more Illinois puts into higher education, the state's private sector grows by more than $3. Therefore, implementing her recommended $1.4 billion investment would generate approximately $4.2 billion in economic activity.
Meanwhile, the evidence also supports the Commission's commitment to impartiality. To give just one example, as it stands, 70.2 percent of white students who enter college graduate within six years, while the graduation rate for black students is only 37.3 percent.
Given the strong correlation between education and wages, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that black workers currently earn about 75 cents on the dollar compared to white workers. Isn't it strange that it happened? And this income disparity contributes to a vicious cycle that makes it difficult for black families in particular to attend college. In fact, the average annual cost of attending a public university in Illinois consumes 18 percent of the annual median income of white households, while it represents 33 percent of the median annual income of black households.
Therefore, if the goal is to build a nation in which everyone has the opportunity to prosper, then scientific research to fund public universities that stimulates economic growth while redressing historical inequalities is essential. Creating an evidence-based system makes sense globally.
Ralph Maltaia is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, and the Arthur Rubloff Professor of Public Policy at Roosevelt University in Chicago.