In his first 100 days of office, Gov. Rauner (Dartmouth and Harvard grad) proposed a 31%
cut in spending for public universities. Yesterday, the nine university
system presidents warned that their schools are on “the brink of serious
operational damage.” See this. To put this in perspective, Illinois ranked dead-last among
states that have increased enrollment in public colleges and universities from 2002-2012 (see chart below). The biggest drain occurred at the “directional
schools”— e.g., EIU and Southern, schools that play a vital role in state
and regional labor markets (EIU [and ISU] teacher grads tend to be great!). But
a bad situation (ten-year trend) that became much worse with a 31% budget cut
proposal in February (Rauner) now is held hostage to the governor’s “turnaround agenda.”
Programs will be cut; schools will attract fewer students; faculty will leave;
and at last—the public sector will begin to shrink.
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