Many states are continuing to cut college budgets, forcing ever-higher tuition rates. Look at Illinois. Our governor is proposing a $400 million dollar cut in public university spending that, according to the president of Illinois State University, will be a 31 percent decline in general state funding for his school. Governor Rauner maintains he wants to support the universities; it’s just that he thinks their bureaucracies are bloated. The fact of the matter is cuts such as these are going to lead to loss of jobs and higher tuition costs.
However, Rauner continues to support steady funding for community colleges. That’s great news for our iNAM consortium of 21 community colleges. Not only will we be able to provide the excellent education that we’ve been known to provide, but more students (and parents) may be shifting their focus from only four-year schools to our local institutions. That may translate to an increase in our enrollment in the years to come.