Equity: Should Colleges With Large Minority Populations Be Funded Despite Impasse?

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Maureen Foertsch McKinney

Published January 19, 2016 at 10:26 AM CST

Chicago State University won’t have funds to operate by March 1 if state money is not released, officials there have said.

Rep. Andre Thapedi, a Chicago Democrat, has sponsored legislation to have $25 million from the state go to predominantly minority public colleges. That would effect Chicago State University and several community colleges. Those colleges have minority enrollment of at least 75 percent.

Thapedi said he sponsored the legislation because schools with large minority populations are dealing with the most vulnerable students.

Sen. Kim Lightford, a Maywood Democrat, is sponsor of the measure in the Senate.

Equity & Justice

Maureen Foertsch McKinney

Maureen Foertsch McKinney is news editor and equity and justice beat reporter for NPR Illinois, where she has been on the staff since 2014 after Illinois Issues magazine’s merger with the station. She joined the magazine’s staff in 1998 as projects editor and became managing editor in 2003. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois Springfield, she was an education reporter and copy editor at three local newspapers, including the suburban Chicago Daily Herald, She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern Illinois University and a master’s degree in English from UIS.

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