Senate Republicans push back on proposed state university funding plan
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — A new proposal to revamp the state’s funding of higher education aims to create a more equitable approach to the process, but it’s been met with some pushback.
Senate Republicans believe a recently proposed funding model for higher education could do more harm than good for public universities in Illinois.
“In this proposal, there [are] equity tiers, which again are designed to address, frankly, the failings of our K-12 school system that’s sending kids to our higher education system that aren’t ready for higher education,” State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) said. “We all agree there needs to be compensation for that, but they’re doing it directly based upon the race of individual students.”
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The Commission on Equitable Public University Funding unveiled the proposal last month. The idea is similar to the evidence-based funding model already in place for Illinois’ K-12 public schools.
As part of the plan, certain metrics would determine the amount of money universities would get. But it would also set up equity adjustments giving extra money for schools based on student’s income status and race.
“It just makes it more likely that additional students from these backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented, rural, Black, Latino, low-income, will be enrolling and not just enrolling but successfully completing their degree in five years.” Ralph Martire, the executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said.
Republicans warn this would lead to constitutional issues, pointing to federal law and a recent Supreme Court ruling. They say if it were to pass, schools would lose federal grant funding.
“Are we really going to jeopardize that type of research investment in this state and the promise that it carries for all of us,” Rose said.
University of Illinois System president Timothy Killeen disagreed.
“I frankly, respectfully, can’t imagine a future where the University of Illinois System loses its federal funding,” Killeen said.
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Martire, who was a part of the commission that worked on the proposal, doesn’t believe the constitutional issues apply.
“No student who wants to attend university would have any less of an opportunity to attend university after this formula goes into place than beforehand, so nobody’s taking anything away from anyone,” Martire said.
Martire added that Illinois as a state can fix state policy to ensure that students from underrepresented backgrounds have the same opportunities as their peers.
“The state, as opposed to an individual university, has every right to look at what the evidence indicates are practices that were encouraged by state policy that had negative impacts by race,” Martire said.
Governor J.B. Pritzker, who put the commission together, wouldn’t comment on the new proposal specifically, but did express his support for an evidence-based funding model for higher education.
“I think modeling after the EBF for K-12 education seems like the right model, kind of a hold harmless as they said, and making sure that new money is coming into the system to try to make up for the inequities between the universities,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event April 18.
So far, no bill has been filed on the proposal.
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