Walker Promotes Funding for SIU, Higher Ed
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Illinois State Senate Candidate Jeremy Walker was on Southern Illinois University's campus earlier today promoting funding for the state's higher education facilities. Walker called for the General Assembly to override the governor's amendatory veto that cut $100 million from Illinois' public universities and community colleges and proposed a funding formula to ensure higher education gets its fair share of funding in the future.
Walker called on the General Assembly to override the governor's amendatory veto of this year's budget that cut an additional $100 million from the state's public universities and community colleges. State Senator John Sullivan, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee joined Walker in his call to action.
"$100 million in cuts have recently forced SIU to potentially implement 'shut down' days which will affect both students and faculty," Walker noted. "If we can restore funding, the university would not have to look at such drastic cost cutting tools. Sitting back and complaining doesn't benefit our students, rolling up our sleeves and fighting for real solutions does."
Walker also proposed a "One-Third/Two-Thirds" funding formula for higher education and K-12 schools. The proposed formula would require all new education funds to be distributed 33.3 and 66.7 percent for higher education and K-12 in that order. Walker says this formula would ensure that higher education is both affordable and available for students looking to attend college and is prioritized in the state budget process.
"This is about priority, not revenue," Walker said. "Tuition continues to skyrocket because universities aren't getting enough funding and are being forced to make up the difference. Unless an alternative is offered, students and their families will continue to suffer. I commend President Glenn Poshard and SIU's administration for holding the line on tuition increases, but many other state universities pass the burden onto students to make up for lack of state funding."
Until the Fiscal Year 2003, education between K-12 and higher education had been split about two-thirds and one-third respectively in terms of funding. Although there was no mandated formula, Sullivan said this funding formula was an "unwritten rule" in the General Assembly which both Democrats and Republicans viewed as a fair allocation of education resources.
"When economic times were better, this was the way we generally appropriated education funds," Sullivan stated. "It was not until this decade that we started getting away from it."
The last three fiscal years, as the economic downturn has continued to plague Illinois' budget, funding for higher education has been decreased to as little as 23 percent instead of the traditional 33 percent. Walker fears that unless this formula is mandated, Illinois runs the risk of further discrepancies between higher education and K-12 in the future.
"This downward trend has been going on for nearly a decade," Walker, whose mother is a public school teacher, added. "The old funding formula had worked for twenty years up until legislators strayed away from it recently. I'm not diminishing the importance of K-12 schools at all, but the quality education a child receives during K-12 will be insufficient if students who want to go to college cannot afford it."
About Jeremy Walker - Jeremy Walker is a first-time candidate for the Illinois State Senate. He is running against fifteen-year incumbent Senator Dave Luechtefeld. Jeremy grew up on his family's farm in rural Illinois. After graduating from Red Bud High School, Jeremy attended Belleville Area College (now SWIC) where he received his associate's degree. Jeremy later attended SIU-C and received his bachelor's degree in political science and minored in agribusiness before receiving his law degree from SIU-C as well. Jeremy lives in Red Bud with his wife, Jennie, and their newborn, Grayson Glenn.