Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford just introduced a bill that would transform how the state funds higher education.
Northern Illinois University president Lisa Freeman served on the state’s Commission on Equitable Public University Funding. Their task was to create a “data-driven approach” to funding higher-ed.
That’s because, Freeman says, right now, there is no formula. She says it’s largely “what did you get last year” and then all public universities get a flat increase or decrease. Freeman says it’s an unfair system because the schools are different: some have larger endowments than others or serve more low-income students.
“We need a funding formula that’s rational, that considers the size of the institution, the mission of the institution and the type of students that the institution serves,” she said. “Because all of those have a significant, direct impact on the money you have to provide students with the experience that they expect, need and deserve.”
The NIU president says a funding formula would also provide much-needed stability year-to-year. She says universities typically don’t know how much state money they’ll receive until later in the fiscal year, which makes long-term planning more difficult.
“We have to guess, and having to guess means we have to be conservative. It means sometimes we can’t get ahead of lengthy procurement processes, we miss opportunities for growth, and it’s very frustrating to the entire campus,” she said.
Freeman sat on the commission along with students, professors, education non-profit leaders, and legislators. Senator Lightford was a co-chair on the commission.
She compared this process to when the state changed how K-12 education was funded back in 2017, which she was a key part of.
“It took us years to do, and it was very political,” she said. “And that’s a part of why I created the commission, because I didn’t want it to be politically driven, I want it to be expert driven.”
Lightford says the K-12 funding formula has been successful so far, and inspired the push to do the same for higher-ed. For example, both formulas are based around “adequacy targets,” calculating how much total money an institution would need to provide instruction and services, and how far they are from that funding target now.
She says no Illinois public university is adequately funded now. The commission’s report shows that the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign would be closest to adequacy and Northeastern Illinois University is furthest from adequacy — although the numbers aren’t final.
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The formula weighs multiple factors unique to each school like the cost of instruction, operations and maintenance, student services, & number of low-income students.
Lisa Freeman says it also considers the university’s mission, like NIU’s.
“We have a distinct identity, combining access with a strong research mission. Our research mission requires investment,” said Freeman. “And supporting students who come from underserved communities requires investment.”
Speaking of investment, Senator Lightford’s new bill requests a lot of additional higher-ed spending.
“Our request of the governor to fund in the state, our new formula adds 135 million new dollars a year for the next 10 years,” she said. “That will move everyone to adequacy across the university system.”
Freeman says, for years, state funding went down, which caused tuition to go up. From 2000 to 2020, state investment in colleges and universities in Illinois dropped by 46% and tuition and fees doubled.
Freeman says the lack of investment hurts enrollment. Some students leave the state for cheaper universities and many low-income students simply can’t afford to go to college at all.
Over the past decade, Illinois public university enrollment is down 7%.
Freeman says the extra cash would make public universities more affordable and allow them to invest in student services to help them succeed once they’re at school.
“I think of academic support services,” said the NIU president. “More peer tutoring, more mechanisms to help our faculty be the best classroom teachers that they can, more advisors, career services targeted more from the very beginning helping students figure out their career paths, I think of mental health services.”
Senator Lightford says there would be a review panel to tweak the formula as they go. They’d also have an accountability system tracking how funding is directed, if schools are taking steps to lower student costs, if enrollment is increasing and student outcomes.
She says the bill is now filed, but the work isn’t done yet.
“We’re going to talk about some of those things that perhaps are not as clear cut, that everyone’s not in love with,” said Lightford, “and see if there’s a common way to get closer to making sure that not only our flagship universities feel good about the formula, but those universities who are furthest from adequacy also feels good about the formula.”
They hope that this new bill — and new way of funding higher-ed — marks a new era for Illinois public universities, one that’s more affordable and more stable than the last few decades have been.
