Time to adequately fund our colleges

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with students from the College of DuPage, a thriving community college campus located in the heart of my legislative district. During that visit, and in listening to the students' concerns, it became clear that something needs to be done about providing adequate funding to our institutions of higher learning.

The issue of higher education funding, and, specifically, community college funding, has become a growing concern facing the Illinois General Assembly.

The Illinois Community College Board's fiscal year 2009 budget congruently reflects a flat request from fiscal year 2008 at the governor's introduced level. This is compounded by the economic downturn the nation is currently experiencing. The sum of these pressures consequently results in the decrease in affordability of an Illinois college education. Already, the state average for tuition and fees for Illinois community colleges has increased by approximately 33 percent over the past several years.

This administration has neglected to make higher education funding a priority since fiscal year 2002, and it is evident in the continued rise in deferred maintenance costs at institutions, as well as an inability to keep students in this state. Given this outlook, community colleges are left with no alternative but to raise tuition and fees to cover operating and maintenance costs. We continue to make education unaffordable in Illinois.

The bottom line is that we cannot continue to shortchange our higher education system. The students of Illinois deserve better.

Sandy Pihos

Glen Ellyn

State Representative

42nd District