Community Colleges Losing Faith In State Aid

By Benjamin Yount    217-528-9844

SPRINGFIELD  –  Community colleges across Illinois have waited so long for payments from the state that some are now wondering if they will get any money at all next year.

Each of the state’s 40 community colleges is waiting on at least one state aid payment.

 At the College of DuPage, John A. Logan College, and Heartland Community College officials are waiting on checks that were due to the schools months ago.

College of DuPage President Robert Breuder said the state owes his school $5 million.  He’s not sure if he will ever get all of what he is owed.

“We should have two by now…and the possibility that we’ll not see the third and fourth payment at all.”

Breuder said the state is supposed to pay 33 percent of costs at community colleges.  But he said state funding is closer to 8-percent at the College of DuPage.

Breuder added that if something doesn’t change soon, the college will have to raise tuition, layoff teachers, or both.

But Breuder said the College of DuPage is running out of easy answers. 

It’s the same at John A. Logan College in southern Illinois. 

The school’s Steve O’Keefe said officials expect only one more payment from the state.  Two checks are supposed to be on the way. 

O’Keefe said John A Logan is trying to plan for another drop in state aid.  He said the college is not quite to a crisis stage, but added that it’s close.

O’Keefe said the lack of state aid is tougher for John A Logan because the school serves a “poorer region” and students cannot easily pay more in tuition and fees.

John A. Logan has already instituted a number of what O’Keefe calls “cost cutting measures.” 

“You can’t count on it, so you begin the process of planning what do we do…and if they’re five or six months behind with this payment, how far behind is the next payment going to be and so on.”

Heartland Community College in Bloomington-Normal is not expecting any help from Springfield next year.

Heartland’s Josh Reinhart says “Heartland’s Board of Trustees will discuss the impact of a tax levy increase about 5 percent that would help to offset the state shortfall. In addition, college administrators say a tuition increase may be unavoidable if state funding continues to fall short.”

Reinhart says Heartland has had to find over $1 million to cover the shortfall in state aid.

Community colleges are just the latest to be hurt by Illinois’ payment delay.  State vendors, businesses that do everything from provide food to prisons to provide medical services, are also waiting months for their checks from Springfield.