Once upon a time in America, a high school diploma was the ticket to a good job. The kind that paid decent enough wages and offered good enough benefits to support a family, put a car or two in the garage and a kid or two through college. Times have changed. Over the past few decades, earning a post-secondary degree has become an economic imperative.
Consider that in 1979, a full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree earned 38% more on average than a high school grad. By 2024, that wage gap ballooned to 84%. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate for folks with just a high school diploma was 4.5%, or almost double the 2.4% unemployment rate for workers with a bachelor’s. But wait, there’s more.
A recent Georgetown University study found that by 2031, 72% of all jobs will require a college degree or other post-secondary credential, as will 85% of high-paying jobs. As for those jobs available for high school grads, the Georgetown study acknowledged they’d still exist, but would offer a paycheck that wouldn’t cover the costs of maintaining a home or raising a family. And it isn’t just 6individuals who benefit from college completion. Research shows the wages of all workers, regardless of educational attainment, are greater in communities with high concentrations of college-educated adults.
Then there’s the Brookings Institute report which found graduating college was a powerful factor in income mobility, and particularly important in moving folks born into the bottom quintile of earners up the income ladder to self-sufficiency.
I could go on, but you get the point: No data even suggest getting a college degree isn’t more important now than ever.
Does that mean graduating college guarantees you’ll land a really good job? No, it doesn’t. But not getting a college degree pretty much guarantees you won’t.
When state doesn’t invest, students pay higher tuition
So if lawmakers want to help make Illinois economically competitive, investing in higher ed should be a real state priority. But that hasn’t been the case. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, state support of higher education will be $1.88 billion, or 42%, less at the end of the current fiscal year than in FY 2000, under Republican Gov. George Ryan.
That disinvestment has had consequences, none of them good. For instance, back in the early 2000s, state general fund appropriations accounted for 72% of total revenue at Illinois’ public universities; 28% came from student tuition and fees. But the state’s disinvestment effectively forced universities to double tuition costs over the last two decades. So today, appropriations cover just 35.1% of public university revenue, while tuition covers the remaining 64.9%.
This has made it increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income students to afford Illinois public universities. Since Black and Latino students are over-represented in lower-income families, the spike in tuition has had a disproportionate negative impact on these young people, contributing to the gap in education attainment: Just 50.5% of low-income students who enroll in a public university in Illinois graduate in six years, compared to 73.6% of students who aren’t low-income. And 70% of white students graduate in six years, compared to just 37% of Black students and 53% of Latinos. The net result: as of 2019, 55.7% of all white Illinois residents had a post-secondary degree, compared to 34.6% of all Black and 27.7% of all Latino residents.
The bottom line is clear: To support our economy, and ensure everyone — regardless of income, race or ethnicity — has the skills needed to get a good job, the state has to do a better job of funding higher education.
Fortunately, Senate Majority Leader Kim Lightford and State Rep. Carol Ammons have provided some real visionary leadership on this issue. A couple of years ago, they co-chaired a commission charged with identifying “data-driven criteria and approaches to adequately, equitably, and stably” funding public universities.
The commission finished its work, and recommended a funding formula that is research based, helps eliminate barriers to higher education access and completion based on income, race and ethnicity, and would, for the first time in state history, create some predictability and stability in higher ed funding. The formula supports core university operating functions, funds programs proven to attract and graduate traditionally underrepresented students, and over time, should reduce the cost of attending public universities for all students.
Lightford and Ammons are now advancing legislation to turn the commission’s recommendations into law. The success of this effort is crucial to the long-term economic viability of Illinois — and all of its residents.
Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, and the Arthur Rubloff Professor of Public Policy at Roosevelt University.
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