BY LEO WELCH

In recent history, Illinois’ support for higher education has shown little growth and in fact has lagged far behind inflation. Susana Mendoza, Illinois Comptroller, released a report on September 20, 2018 on the Consequences of Illinois’ 2015-2017 Budget Impasse and Fiscal Outlook. The full report includes the background and history of Illinois’ fiscal crisis, service providers, higher education and trends for the future. The following is an analysis of the fiscal impact on Illinois’ public higher education from Mendoza’s report.

In fiscal year 1990 the state spent $1,098,493,200 on public four-year universities and $1,612,927,700 on higher education overall. By fiscal year 2015, the state was spending $1,201,776,600 on public four-year universities and $1,947,639,900 on higher education overall. If the 1990 higher education spending had been simply increased with inflation, the expected expenditure in fiscal year 2015 would be roughly 1.5 times what was actually appropriated.

Following years of limited increases or cuts in state support, the impasse affected public universities, community colleges and need-based scholarship programs associated with higher education dramatically. In fiscal year 2016, without a fully appropriated budget, state spending on four-year public universities fell by 70.77 percent. Although a stopgap budget for higher education was enacted for fiscal year 2017, and an annual appropriation was provided in the fiscal year 2018 budget, state support for higher education programs is still well below fiscal year 2015 levels.

Despite the fiscal year 2018 budget funding, the long-term impacts of the massive cuts to higher education spending in fiscal year 2016 are far reaching.

The major credit ratings agencies downgraded multiple public universities’ debt during the impasse, with some falling below investment grade, which threatened university accreditation. As a result of the impasses, public universities and community colleges enrolled 72,196 fewer students, cut 7,490 jobs, and the state lost roughly $948.7 million in generated economic output–$461.7 million of which was felt outside the Chicagoland area.

Low-income students suffered inordinately under the budget impasse. The Monetary Award Program (MAP), which is a state-administered college tuition grant program designed to benefit low-income students, experienced a decrease in funding from $364.1 million to $169.8 million between fiscal year 2015 and 2016, a 53.36 percent cut. In a July 2016 survey conducted by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which received more than 10,000 responses from current MAP grant students, one in seven receiving MAP grants stated they would drop out of school or have extreme difficulty finishing if MAP grants were not funded.

While there was a stopgap budget in fiscal year 2017 and an annual appropriation for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, the uncertainty and delays in MAP funding in fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2017 put needless pressure on low-income students in Illinois—with the number of MAP grants awarded continuing to lag pre-impasse levels to this day.

The impasse starved many of Illinois’ institutions for higher learning in a dramatic way, and the state still has a long path ahead before it adequately funds higher education.

Guest blogger Leo Welch is legislative officer for the Illinois AAUP.