Over the last decade, state funding for Illinois State University has dropped by more than a third after inflation. And it has declined as a share of the total university budget for more than three decades. That could change if the state legislature passes a measure this spring.
The last five ISU presidents [at least] have yearned to change the way the state funds higher education to a per student basis instead of a lump sum. They have said it would make funding more equitable among public universities. ISU often has felt punished for its success in maintaining steady student enrollment because, over time, it has resulted in the university receiving less state money per student than other institutions get.
There's a chance some sort of per-student allocation could finally happen this year.
Eyob Villa-Moges is a senior policy associate with the education advocacy group Advance Illinois. Villa-Moges said at a support mobilization event held at ISU that the current so-called base-plus formula isn't a formula — and it's not based on anything at all except private negotiations when universities go to Springfield and ask for resources.
"Ultimately, public university funding is at the whim of budgetary pressures where Springfield identifies how much they have already committed to other causes and then whatever is left over public universities get an increase or decrease in their funding, and that's how it has run for the better part of 20 years," said Villa-Moges.
That process has eroded state support for higher education.
In 1994, states spent a national average of 14-15% of their revenue on public colleges and universities. Villa-Moges said Illinois lagged a little back then at 12.5%.
"We have seen it entirely crater since then, going all the way down to just about 2% of our state's resources," he said, adding Illinois is now among the worst states in terms of support for public colleges and universities.
There have been consequences, according to the group The Partnership for College Completion.
"We've uniquely disinvested as a state," said associate research and policy director Mike Abrahamson. "And some of the effects we're experienced in Illinois have been unique. We've had the largest, I know not here [at ISU], but we've had the largest decrease of public university students in the country over that disinvestment period."
Advance Illinois and The Partnership for College Completion said over time a big gap also has developed in how much public universities spend on services that support students, compared with universities in other states. In 2010, that was $5,500 — it has increased to $7,500.
First-year ISU student Hassan Hilliard said ISU should do more because student success is about more than grades. It includes mental, emotional, and physical stability. Hilliard said ISU offers a lot: counseling, cultural centers, a health center, therapy, academic support, a food pantry, and leadership programs. He said there are big gaps common to other institutions as well.
"The problem is not always what's available, it's how accessible it really is. Getting a therapist sometimes means waiting weeks ... office hours don't always match the reality of students working two jobs. If your build doesn't meet the students where you are, then it's not really serving the students," said Hilliard.
State support lacking
ISU has gone from $92 million in state support in 2002 to $80 million this year. ISU Academic Senate president Martha Horst also heads the state association of faculty senates. She said the decline in state support in absolute and relative terms has put institutions in a vise, adding it would be nice to not have a starvation mentality.
"Every single year it's harder and harder to fund the level of instruction that we need to, for instance, have that student-teacher ratio at the level that adequate level that accreditors ask for," said Horst.
One of the biggest impacts of state defunding relates to students who have to pay higher tuition. ISU president Aondover Tarhule said it's frustrating to hear critics accuse universities of building deluxe institutions, or of having administrative bloat. He's tired of having universities painted as the bad guy.
"The defunding from the state has transferred the responsibility for running the universities to students. Universities don't make a profit," said Tarhule.
To compensate for that higher tuition, Illinois public universities have had to offer huge increases in student aid. That slows, but doesn't stop a trend of Illinois high school graduates choosing to go out of state for college because they can get a better financial deal.
Tarhule said that is unsustainable.
The Partnership for College Completion, Advance Illinois, and other groups are pushing for a higher education funding formula. Advance Illinois Executive Director Robin Steans said the bill in Springfield [SB13 and HB1581] would add about $1.7 billion in state spending to higher ed over the next 10 to 15 years. It calls for roughly $135 million more each year.
"We are one of the most expensive states in the country to earn a four-year degree. Flipping that, we are one of the least affordable. But we can change that," said Steans.
The formula is complex and dynamic. It looks at other state data, compares it to Illinois, and sets a basic per-student adequacy level.
"First this percentage gap. How far away is each institution from their adequacy target by percentage and by overall amount. Use those two things and you divide up any increase from the state," said Abrahamson of the Partnership for College Completion.
The formula also considers equity adjustments for first-generation college students, students from underserved communities, students from low-income families, and so on. It builds that into the per-student number. The argument is those students would benefit most from support services.
Universities would continue to have the power to set tuition rates. Villa-Moges with Advance Illinois said institutions have marketplace incentives to bring down tuition rates and make themselves more affordable — if state support grows.
"And what's more, with this investment from the state, it's going to shift the student share from 71% of ISU's resources all the way down to 39%," said Villa-Moges, adding that would make Illinois' university reliance on students for revenue look more like the rest of the nation.
Advocates say research confirms added higher education investment boosts enrollment, decreases time to completion and increases overall graduation rates. There's an outsized benefit for Black and Latinx students.
Part of the rationale that helped set the amount of new funding at $1.7 billion is a calculation of how much it would take to get Illinois institutions from an average 63% graduation rate up to 70%.
“There are accountability measures built in,” said Abrahamson.
And, it's not just students and universities that would benefit.
Villa-Moges said the amount of funding in the bill would generate an extra 15,000 ISU graduates, which has economic consequences.
"And would generate over the lifetime of those graduates a $5.6 billion infusion into the local economy through their purchasing of local goods and services," he said.
And since college graduates tend to stay close to where they go to school, some of that economic activity, advocates argue, would stay in Illinois instead of departing as it now does.
ISU's share
ISU's share of the increases over the decade plus would be $201.7 million. That's a $9,800 per-student increase for ISU — from about $12,000 per student up to $22,000 per student, said Villa-Moges. No Illinois institution is at or above 100% adequacy. They range from 45% to 89% adequacy. ISU is at 55% adequacy, he said.
The legislation is far from solving all the problems facing Illinois public higher education institutions. It does nothing for capital needs. There’s more than $500 million in deferred maintenance at ISU alone.
"I used to enjoy this campus until I became president. Now that I'm president, each time I am walking on the quad, I see that building ... oh gosh, that's $2 million ... so everywhere I look, all I see are dollar signs," said Tarhule.
The $1.7 billion is a big gulp for the state, and since it's $135 million per year in new money, it gets tougher each year.
Villa-Moges said there is a path to passage this year for the measure first drafted three years ago, but it's not a sure thing. State Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, said it's certainly not easy, given the challenging budget cycle.
"While we really to want to see this happen because we know how transformative it could be to a lot of students and families around the state, the price tag is quite high. It's going to take some time to convince a lot of my colleagues how we're going to get there," said Chung.
Yet, Advance Illinois' Steans said the state already has spent $2.1 billion in new money on elementary and secondary education in last decade, when it created a funding formula for K-12 schools.
She said K-12 schools are a lot better than they used to be — 164 districts were below 60% adequacy funding levels when they started. None are below that now and the vast majority are over 70% adequacy. Steans said it's clear Illinois can do difficult things. Whether that thing is this year, is not yet clear.
Tarhule said it would be nice to get just a little more money from the state, so the university didn't have to struggle so much.
