Column: Affordability in college hits rock bottom in Illinois

By Matt DeRosa

Last week the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released “Measuring Up,” the report cards for higher education. Sadly, our fair school did not rank so well. The biggest black eye to higher education in this state was no surprise – in Affordability we earned an “F” with a note saying that this area was down on all indicators used to determine the state’s grades. Other areas include Preparation, Participation, Completion, Benefits and Learning.

Some areas had improvements from the 2004 report card. In Completion, Illinois went from a “B” to a “B+.” It stated that a “fairly large percentage (51 percent) of first year students in community colleges return.” Even more impressive was that “the percentage of freshmen at public/private four-year (schools … ) who return for their sophomore year is very large (76 percent).” The state also has 58 percent of its full time students completing the credit requirements to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Though it may take six years to complete school, it is somewhat understandable with the growing number of students who quit school for a while to work, and then return later.

In other areas however, our state weakened. Preparation saw a decline for Illinois, from a “B+” down to a “B.” This was mainly due to poor performance indicators in math appearing in groups as young as eighth grade. It was also the result of poor performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams, despite the somewhat high display of talent on college entrance exams.

Benefits had a major spike since 2004. Illinois went from a “B-” to an “A.” However, in reading what “Measuring Up” means by the term “benefits,” our Affordability grade becomes even more concerning. Benefits does not refer to the perks a student receives while in school. The report refers to how the state is benefiting from having its population get a college education.

How do they benefit? According to the report, “residents contribute substantially to the civic good, as measured by charitable giving and voting.” More intriguing is that “the economic benefits that Illinois has enjoyed as a result of having a highly educated population have increased substantially.”

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The million dollar question: If the state is benefiting so much from having a well-educated population, why are they allowing college to become less affordable and thus harder to complete? Someone please tell me because I have been racking my brain trying to figure this one out and I have got nothing so far. The governor and general assembly know the state would be in better shape if more people were completing school, yet they allow the situation to escalate.

In conversations I’ve heard, people say not to blame Blagojevich – he is doing all he can and he did give higher education an increase to their budget. While this is true – more money was allocated to this year’s higher education budget than last year – you’re blind if you think it was anything more than an election year act of desperation. Let us not forget that he cut higher education’s budget by a little over 10 percent for the 2005 fiscal year. This means that even with the increase higher education saw in the governor’s budget we are still only climbing back to the level of funding colleges once had. Even with the $26 million increase, higher education is still down $400 million from the 2002 budget.

Cuts like the ones colleges and universities saw from 2003 to 2005 have caused colleges to look elsewhere for their funding, namely us. Affordability went from a “B” in 2002, to a “D” in 2004 and finally to an “F” on this year’s report card. In other words we have literally hit rock bottom when it comes to giving students a chance to continue their education. This is especially sickening when the report shows our state has an “A” for benefits of its citizens going to school.

Matt can be reached at [email protected]