Prairie State Wire

Jeanne Ives published a blog post on a new higher education funding bill filed on July 30 by Sen. Kimberly Lightford and Rep. Carol Ammons. She published that post on July 31, 2024.

According to the report, Senate Bill 3965 is the result of a report by a 33-member commission and legislative hearings. The Illinois Commission on Equitable Public University Funding report includes a "framework for a funding model that will, with the necessary State funding, ensure that all students at Illinois universities receive a quality and affordable education, regardless of their background or where they choose to attend."

The funding model determines a unique funding level based on student needs, mission, and mix of programs for every institution in the state; it provides a funding increase to every institution when new dollars are invested and distributes new funding through an equity allocation.

This isn’t the first time Ives has spoken out against this plan. In an April 24 article in Breakthrough Ideas, she addressed the topic.

"The Illinois Board of Higher Education, progressive Democrat state legislators, and university presidents have devised a plan to fund higher education based on race. These over-educated elitists sitting in their academic bubble and seeping in their racial equity dogma have literally put a price on students based only on race. One of their proposed adjustments for additional money assigns a Black student’s worth at $6,000, a Hispanic student $4,000, and a student from a rural district $2,000. If they admit a Black rural student, then the ‘Equity Adjustment’ is stackable to a maximum of $8,000," Ives wrote in the April 24 news post.

According to Ives' article, White and Asian students wouldn’t get money under this model.

Ives also stated that not only will the bill allow race-based funding but it will increase funding annually by $135 million for a decade and distribute it based on the equity funding model from the Illinois Commission on Equitable Public University Funding report. It will also "make taxpayers and residents believe that higher education in Illinois has been underfunded for years and that it is a primary cause of our high school graduates going to college out of state," she said in the July 31 Breakthrough Ideas article on the new Senate bill.

Jeanne Ives is a former Illinois State Representative who served six years representing the people of Illinois House District 42. She ran for governor in 2018 and ran for election to represent Illinois’ 6th Congressional District in 2020.