Since 2010, Illinois State University has raised annual in-state tuition by nearly $1,200 as state funding tumbled 34% to $80 million a year. With a $12 million deficit this academic year, the university has suspended salary increases for faculty and staff, cut department allocations for travel and research and delayed capital improvements.
“This was a shock to many on campus, because they never believed this could happen to us,” says ISU President Aondover Tarhule.
The school in downstate Normal isn’t alone. For over two decades, state funding of Illinois’ public universities has failed to keep up with rising costs, forcing administrators to raise tuition, which, in turn, has squeezed family finances and even discouraged students from pursuing a degree.
Moreover, these schools that depend on state resources are serving large numbers of low-income students, students of color and first-generation students. African Americans represent 78% of the population at Chicago State University. Northeastern Illinois University, also in Chicago, is a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, with Hispanic, Black, Asian and Native Americans representing two-thirds of the student body. Even ISU, which was once mostly white, says a quarter of its students are from underrepresented demographic groups. Universities are more diverse because the state’s population has become more diverse, Tarhule notes.
The lack of adequate funding deprives students of an opportunity to get a good education in- state, and the ability of the colleges to serve them, says Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, a nonprofit public education policy and advocacy organization. “Research shows that kids are likely to stay and work where they go to school,” she says. “Students who go out of state might come back, but they might not. I don’t know why that’s a risk you would want to take as a state.”
The decentralized state system historically had no formula for funding the public universities. It was mostly a political process, where administrators from each school would make their case to legislators. Schools serving underrepresented students, such as CSU, NEIU and Governors State University in south suburban University Park, lacked the resources and clout to lobby Springfield.
“It was really about the worst way to go about funding higher ed,” says Ralph Martire, executive director of the nonprofit think tank Center for Tax & Budget Accountability, or CTBA.
The political climate began to change in 2017 when the Illinois General Assembly passed a system of evidence-based funding for K-12 school districts, which directed resources to districts with the highest needs, including those with the greatest number of low-income students and English-language learners.
A bill that adopts the use of an equitable funding formula for public universities, the Adequate & Equitable Public University Funding Act, is pending in the General Assembly. It stems from the work of a state-appointed commission that identified the gaps at each school and the amount of funding needed to reach a level of adequacy that would lower dependence on tuition. It calls for an additional $1.75 billion in funding over 10 to 15 years, or $135 million a year. The commission estimates that the funding could result in 45,000 more college graduates contributing to state and local economies.
Although the bill has been supported by nine of the 12 public universities in the state, opposition by the University of Illinois System has presented a major hurdle. U of I officials say the bill and its funding formula penalize the schools that provide the most support for underrepresented and rural students. The system’s three schools in Chicago, Springfield and Urbana-Champaign educate 53% of Illinois’ public university students and 45% of the state’s students who are eligible for federal Pell grants, officials testified in April. But the schools would receive only 28% of any incremental state funding, resulting in the lowest per-student investment among the state universities.
A winnowing of state resources
Funding for Illinois’ 12 public universities reached a high-water mark in 2002 when the state provided 72% of revenues, according to the CTBA. Average tuition in 2000 was $4,040 annually (not adjusted for inflation), or $7,428 in 2025 dollars (adjusted for inflation). Today the state funds only 35% of revenue and average tuition and fees account for the balance, or an average of $14,921 in 2023.
Over two decades, costs soared but state appropriations didn’t keep up. This year, for example, 43% of higher education appropriations were directed to the pension fund for university professors and workers, much of which is dedicated to unfunded liabilities. “We saw this winnowing down of state resources, a shifting of priorities away from higher education,” says Lisa Castillo Richmond, executive director of the nonprofit Partnership for College Completion. All the schools fundraise, but the endowments of the institutions outside the U of I System are relatively modest: less than $250 million compared to $3 billion for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The doubling of tuition has penalized low- and middle-income families. The average tuition cost equates to 33% of the median income for a Black household in the state, 20% for a Latino family and 17% for a white family. Compared to their counterparts with similar incomes in Indiana and Iowa, low-income students in Illinois are spending a much larger percentage of their family’s income to go to the same types of institutions, Richmond says.
The state’s Monetary Award Program, or MAP, which in 2000 covered 66% of the average tuition and fees at a public university, by 2021 was only covering 26% of that cost, according to the CTBA. Illinois has boosted MAP funding in recent years, “but we’re just so far behind,” Steans says.
Enrollment in Illinois public universities fell 18% between 2004 and 2024, with an even steeper decline between 2010 and 2024, outpacing the national rate, according to the CTBA. NEIU, Eastern Illinois University in downstate Charleston and Western Illinois University in downstate Macomb saw enrollments fall by half or more over two decades. NEIU lost 4,300 students, a drop of 57% to its current level of 3,865. ISU, UIUC and the University of Illinois Chicago were the only schools to see enrollment gains.
The financial situation became particularly painful during a budget impasse in 2016 under former Gov. Bruce Rauner. Moody’s Investors Service lowered credit ratings for three of the state’s public universities. CSU declared a financial crisis and laid off nearly 400 employees. “The university came within a day of closing,” recalls CSU President Zaldwaynaka "Z" Scott, who was named to the role in 2018. “We lost about 2,000 students during that time.” The following year, NEIU closed for several days and laid off 200 employees.
The state’s public universities are still feeling the pain. And the outlook is cloudy, as the number of students graduating from U.S. high schools is expected to start falling since the number of births nationwide peaked at 4.3 million in 2007.
Northern Illinois University in DeKalb is tightening spending as it works to reduce a $30.1 million deficit. Enrollment has fallen by 38% since 2004. Enrollment at WIU has continued to tumble, down 10.5% in fall 2024 from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Facing a budget deficit of $22 million, the university is laying off 89 staff members this school year, including 57 faculty members. “National trends have shown a decline in enrollment at regional public universities like WIU across the country,” a Western Illinois spokesman says.
The funding crisis has taken a toll on university towns like WIU’s home base of Macomb. Dorms have been razed and two more are set to close this summer, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. Campus walkways have fallen into disrepair and local merchants are hurting for customers.
Tarhule says ISU has been able to avoid layoffs, but the choices have been difficult.
In the past, public universities would raise tuition to cover a shortfall. “But now we’re in a landscape where we all know that tuition is too high,” he says. So, despite its constrained budget, ISU has boosted its allocation for scholarships to $64 million this year from $25 million in 2017 to cover the funding gaps for applicants the school is eager to enroll.
Peer schools in the state have similarly boosted “last dollar” scholarships to help cover those gaps, even accounting for federal Pell and state MAP grants, and to get students enrolled and through the door.
“Schools are trying to make it more affordable,” says Alyssa Arroyo-Kearney, a college counselor at Noble Street College Prep, a charter high school in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. Not long ago, grants could cover tuition and fees, she says. Today, the lift is harder, with families taking out loans or paying out of pocket to cover a balance that could typically amount to $3,000 to $5,000 a year.
The experience of isolated virtual classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic soured some high school students on the college experience, counselors say. Personal and family upheavals during the public health crisis discouraged some students from enrolling. Trade and vocational programs became more popular to the detriment of four-year colleges. But Chicago-area universities such as CSU, NEIU and UIC have benefited from local students opting to stay closer to home to avoid the cost of room and board.
Yesenia Olvera, director of postsecondary success at Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, sees more high school students pursuing two-year programs that offer pathways to trade jobs. For example, Richard J. Daley College has a partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. And students in the manufacturing technology program at the community college can transfer to an advanced manufacturing program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Leaking roofs at Chicago State
The pending bill in Springfield that would send more resources to Illinois’ public universities stems from recommendations issued last year by the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, which was established by the General Assembly in 2021. The legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana.
The commission’s study evaluated the resources of each public university. It quantified an “adequacy target”—the cost to provide support for students to succeed, with adjustments for those from historically underserved groups and an affordable level of tuition and fees.
According to the study, WIU has the widest gap, meaning it is only 46% adequately funded. Five other public universities in the state are 50% adequately funded or less: Northeastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Eastern Illinois, Governors State and Northern Illinois.
“We needed a funding formula that focused on some equity principles,” says CSU’s Scott. “There are still significant challenges in moving from high school to college in Illinois that include a lack of resources, a lack of counseling and a lack of understanding around financial aid.”
The commission proposes using additional funds to recruit and enroll students and support them as they matriculate. Costly academic programs such as engineering and nursing would also gain more resources.
Education advocates hope to flip the burden of tuition and fees currently on students from 65% to 40%, in line with the U.S. average as of 2023.
Scott says the added funding would be a game-changer. “Our facilities don’t reflect the quality of the instruction we provide, and that impacts retention,” she says. “Students may see buckets catching rainwater coming through the roof. And we haven’t upgraded a bathroom on this campus since it was built in the 1970s.”
But opposition deflated the bill’s advocates this spring. The bill, SB13, was pending in committee at the close of the legislative session at the end of May. Advocates say they will continue to push for it.
During state Senate testimony in April, Nick Jones, executive vice president and vice president of academic affairs for the U of I System, said the new funding formula would result in the system’s schools having the lowest per-student investment among all state public universities.
Jones criticized the methodology, saying the approach focuses on enrollment over student outcomes and that the U of I System graduation rates of 76.3% and retention of 89.3% are ignored. No public modeling, scenarios testing or simulation was conducted to show actual impacts over 10 to 15 years, and the formula fails to recognize research universities’ broader missions and higher-cost programs, he testified.
Advocates say the bill’s funding distribution will change over time so that all public universities in the state are brought up to adequacy over a 15-year period. Once the new formula is implemented, none of the schools will receive a lower appropriation, according to an analysis by the Partnership for College Completion. For example, the U of I System would receive a total of $342 million more in additional funding over 15 years than it would under a scenario of 3% across-the-board annual increases.
The Urbana Champaign flagship would receive relatively less money in the early stages of the new methodology, because the priority would be to help schools with the widest funding gaps, according to PCC. Larger public universities in need of a significant nominal investment, such as ISU, NIU and UIC, would receive the largest proportion of the additional annual funding during the 15-year period.
The state ecosystem needs to be strengthened, Tarhule says. “You need more than one strong, financially thriving institution in a state as big as Illinois,” he says. “While many of us feel that . . . the bill is not perfect, it’s infinitely better than where we are now.”
