Alarming Data: Illinois’ Public Universities are Collapsing

Data collected from the organization, Illinois Policy, shows that the public universities in the state of Illinois are in real financial trouble. To see the entire picture for yourself, click here!

What I want to focus on is a couple of key pieces of the data Illinois Policy touches on. The first point is that public universities are now spending 43% of their budgets on PENSIONS...compare that to 2009 when only 7% was spent on pensions. The second point is that 8 of the state's public universities have seen steep enrollment decreases from 2009 to 2024, while Illinois has the 4th highest in-state tuition costs. To see the whole picture, click here! 

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Will the schools collapse?

I hardly think the state of Illinois will let schools like Easter, Western, and Southern just completely close and fall into ruin. But... The state is losing population, the state is giving less money to the universities, and the universities are raising costs, all while paying GIGANTIC pensions, and having to manage the current political climate with young people. These are all the ingredients you need to bake a disaster cake. How do we truly avoid the collapse...? It starts with the pension crisis. These universities will never be able to lower costs and be competitive in attracting in-state and out-of-state students until they are no longer spending 43% of their budgets on pensions. How do you fix the pension crisis...? Well, that is a question for someone a lot smarter than me.