Higher ed spending up as enrollment plummets at Illinois universities
[September 08, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A former state lawmaker says Illinois is now tops
in the nation on per-student spending in higher education, despite
enrollment plummeting as Illinois' high school graduates select colleges
in other states.
The Illinois Policy Institute found that state government spending on
higher education in Illinois increased over $2 billion as enrollment
dropped by more than 106,000 students between 2009 and 2024.
Illinois Policy Institute Senior Fellow and former state Rep. Mark
Batinick says he gets tired of people saying state taxpayers are not
funding higher education enough.
“We are number one in the funding of higher education. I think we are
more than double the national average. Some people will say, ‘Well
that’s because of historical pension payments.’ Even when you strip out
pension payments, we’re in the top five,” Batinick told The Center
Square.
The Illinois Policy Institute found that about 43 cents of every state
higher education dollar from general funds goes to fund pensions instead
of instructing students.
Batinick said universities have not lost funding, even as they have lost
students.
“We’re spending a lot of money per student on higher education. We’re
just not getting the return on that investment,” Batinick added.
Batinick said students are getting better deals in other states because
of Illinois’ increased tuitions.
The average price of in-state tuition and fees at Illinois’ 12 public
universities rose from $9,410 in 2009 to $15,439 in 2025.
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Batinick said the state’s historical funding model is based on the
previous year’s funding and not on enrollment.
“So as some universities have lost students, they haven’t lost
funding. And as some universities that are doing a good job have
grown or held their enrollment, they don’t get extra funding because
of that. You have a lot of universities that just aren’t doing well,
some with low enrollment that are getting more per student than
perhaps they should and then some with larger enrollment that aren’t
getting as much funding as the other universities,” Batinick said.
Batinick said enrollment at state schools dropped from around
380,000 in 2011 to about 260,000 today. He said projections show the
numbers could drop to 175,000 in the next 15 years.
“So you’re funding a system that’s meant to educate nearly 400,000
students, that’s working its way to being less than 200,000
students, so unless you do some re-imagination, some redesigning,
some sort of consolidation, whatever it is, too much of the money is
going to go to the top and not make its way down to the student,
which is why you’re seeing so many students leave the state of
Illinois,” Batinick said.
According to Illinois Policy, more than 10% of university funding is
spent on administrative bloat, not students or faculty.
In 2021, nearly 48% of Illinois’ four-year, college-bound students
chose out-of-state schools, with the top picks being public
universities in neighboring states where tuition was cheaper.
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