Funding uncertainties loom over Hanover Park education center
The future of a Hanover Park community education center may be in jeopardy a year from now due to funding uncertainties from the federal, state and local levels, officials say.
The Education and Work Center opened in fall 2014 as a joint initiative between Elgin Community College and Harper College, offering free classes in English as a Second Language, high school equivalency and computer skills.
The original three-year pilot program was due to expire next month, but Harper is extending its commitment for the fall 2017 semester. ECC then plans to operate the spring 2018 semester on its own.
Rebecca Walker, senior director of the Education and Work Center, said there is no guarantee for the summer of 2018 and beyond in the face of dwindling resources.
Some $443,000 in federal money through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act helps fund about half the center's operations in the upcoming fiscal year, which runs July 2017 through June 2018. But that money is at risk of being cut, Walker said.
Added to that is the fact ECC and Harper already receive less money from the state, and future appropriations remain in doubt due to the ongoing budget impasse. At the start of the pilot program, each school pledged $250,000 annually for the center's operations.
"ECC is investigating all opportunities for partnerships and funding, but a sustainable solution for this center still eludes us," Walker said,
One possibility is adding some fee-based noncredit or certificate courses in career and technical or continuing education, generating a small profit to offset costs, though it might add only "a few drops in the bucket," Walker said.
The center, at 6704 Barrington Road in the Hanover Square strip mall, has five classrooms within a 10,900-square-foot space the village paid to renovate in 2014.
With enrollment averaging more than 600 students per year, demand has been high. There's a waitlist to get in, though most students start taking classes within a semester of applying, Walker said.
Beyond morning classes taught by Harper instructors and evening classes by ECC instructors, the on-site Illinois workNet Center offers job search assistance, resume help, computer tutoring and career advising.
About $150,000 from Harper's original $750,000 commitment is left over and will help fund the fall 2017 semester. But Provost Judy Marwick said officials decided not to commit funding beyond that, considering Harper doesn't have to pay rent at other satellite locations where it offers adult education classes. And about 80 percent of students at the Education and Work Center also come from ECC's district.
"It seemed like a really good project and it is a really good project, but in this economic environment, we're not able to continue," Marwick said.