Jindal’s budget proposes $211 million in higher-education cuts. “Revenue enhancements” he proposed last week, which include issuing bonds against federal tobacco settlement payments and using unclaimed lottery funds, would negate the need, said Meghan Parrish, a spokeswoman for the state’s Division of Administration.
Governor Bruce Rauner, the first Republican elected to lead Illinois in 16 years, is seeking to plug the state’s $6.2 billion deficit in part with $387 million in cuts to higher education, a 31.5 percent reduction. Catherine Kelly, his spokeswoman, said the plan preserves funding to community colleges and to the financial aid program for needy students.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, another Republican with White House ambitions, has steered more than $2 billion in tax cuts through the legislature since taking office in 2011. Walker has called for a $300 million reduction for the university system during the next two years.
The governor backtracked on changing the so-called Wisconsin Idea, the Progressive-era belief that underpins the system, holding that it should improve the lives of every citizen beyond the classroom. Walker had proposed shifting to a narrower goal of meeting “workforce needs.”
The governor’s proposed cut is “a pretty shocking figure,” said Walker Van Dixhorn, 23, a fifth-year engineering student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
While Walker’s stated goal of giving schools more flexibility to control costs and spend efficiently sounds good, it’s hard to know what effect the cuts may have on tuition and educational offerings, he said.
“It’s disheartening and disconcerting,” Van Dixhorn said. “I’d like to see this remain a world-class institution that my kids can go to one day.”