Gov. Blagojevich’s new budget proposal includes greater funding for higher education, with an increase in University funding, including funding for Lincoln Hall. It also increased funding for community colleges in the state, to the tune of $395.5 million for the Illinois Community College Board.

However, Illinois is not the only state in the union that is emphasizing junior college funding.

The Virginia state legislature has recently presented a bill to Gov. Tim Kaine that could award up to $2,000 per year for certain community college transfer students, said Kirsten Nelson of the Virginia State Council of Higher Education.

The Virginia Senate bill originally locked tuition for such transfer students, so that hypothetically a student could attend the University of Virginia for the same price as they paid for junior college. Conference committee actions, which acted to compromise between the Senate bill and the more modest House bill, changed it to its present form.

The bill submitted to the governor would provide $1,000 per year for those with Associate’s Degrees, a 3.0 GPA upon transfer and family funding of less than $8,000.

There is an additional $1,000 per year made available for students in “under-served areas,” such as nursing and engineering, bringing the total up to $2,000 per year.

“It’s an effort to help lower-income students to give them greater access to a four-year institution,” Nelson said.

Kaine has until April 4 to veto the bill or send it back to the state congress.

“The goal is to help community college students transfer to a four-year college, public or private,” Nelson said.

Such a program does not currently exist in Illinois, where 15,000 students transferred from community colleges to four-year colleges in 2005, said Don Sevener, Illinois Board of Higher Education spokesperson.

Last fall the University enrolled 890 transfer students from all types of institutions, said Stacey Kostell, director of undergraduate admissions at the University.

“We don’t offer any (financial) incentives to students transferring to the University,” Kostell said.

“There’s not a grant program aimed specifically at transfers,” said Sevener. He added that a similar program was proposed as baccalaureate program last year, but the bill did not pass. There has been little discussion of such a program in the Illinois Board of Higher Education since that time, he said.

“There’s really nothing in the works,” he added, “but that doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen.”