Tuition on the way up?
SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to give $300-per-child tax rebates to help families make ends meet, but they may need it to help cover rising tuition under his budget plan.
Faced with stagnant and now possibly declining state funding in Blagojevich's proposed budget, state schools say they'll be forced to raise tuition even higher next year.
All told, the governor's higher education budget would drop state general support of public universities by nearly $11 million to $1.36 billion.
This comes after several years of flat-line funding that lagged inflation and resulted in students and parents shouldering an increasing share of the costs of running the schools.
"When a university or college does not receive accurate funding from the state … it has to come out of tuition," Illinois Board of Higher Education executive director Judy Erwin told lawmakers Friday.
Potentially exacerbating the higher education sticker shock is that state law also prevents schools from raising tuition once students are enrolled. So each incoming freshman class is essentially hit with four years' worth of increases at once.
How much tuition might increase depends on the school, Erwin said. Blagojevich's budget proposal at this point is just a recommendation. Lawmakers now must decide whether they can build support to alter it.
The plan is for the budget year that starts July 1.
A Blagojevich budget office spokeswoman defended the funding levels.
"What's not reflected in individual universities' budgets is that the state pays the state employees' pension and healthcare costs -- costs which continue to rise, but must be covered by the state," spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said.
She also pointed out that the higher education system would get $900 million in campus construction spending if the governor's plan to sell off the lottery to finance statewide building is successful.
That, however, is a big "if" given lawmakers' previous rejection of similar lottery deals.
Erwin said construction and maintenance spending is now coming from classroom cuts, given the lack of state investment in recent years. If the state goes another year without a construction spending plan, she predicted all public universities would raise student facility fees to cover costs.
"In the meantime, it's going to come out of students," Erwin said.
She also said the student war veteran population is expected to continually increase. Student veterans receive $19.3 million in free education from the state, yet more than half the cost is covered by their fellow students in tuition increases, she said.
As proposed, the governor's budget would largely impact two major university systems -- the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois.
Randall Kangas, budget spokesman for U of I Urbana-Champaign, said its proposed state funding is below what it received in the 2000 budget year, not accounting for inflation.
University of Illinois campuses received nearly $745 million in overall state assistance in the current budget. Blagojevich wants to cut $4.8 million for next year.
SIU campuses' funding would drop $1.4 million to set its new level at $225.8 million.
Proposed funding levels for other universities are:
• Chicago State University's $42.9 million from this year is proposed to be lowered $3.4 million.
• Northern Illinois University's state funding drops $674,000 from its current $105.9 million.
• Northeastern Illinois University takes a $370,000 decrease from this year's $40.8 million.
• Illinois State University will face a $48,000 decrease to just over $83 million next year.
• And Eastern Illinois University and Western Illinois University's state funding remains the same -- at $49.2 million and $58.3 million, respectively.