Higher ed need some fixes for sure. As a PA resident, I am constantly dismayed by our system and costs. If I were an Illinois resident, I’d be furious. Either close the institution or consolidate.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-state-university-enrollment-future-met-20160927-story.html has more details on Chicago State (article from 2016). The school, which has a substantial nontraditional student population (note: 200 new transfers that year, along with the 86 frosh), had seen heavy enrollment declines in just the last few years (from 7,362 in 2010 to 3,578, including 2,352 undergraduates, in 2016), and had laid off 40% of its staff.
One thing about that article that I don’t like at all is the sneaky way they kept saying “pay and pensions are out of control”. Pensions are past debts that the institutions incurred. Attacking an institution for employing too many people, that may be a valid tactic. Attacking an institution because they are carrying out agreed-upon payments to support the welfare of people who have given their lives to the institution, that’s stinky.
The pension problems are the mistakes of the past (overpromising and underfunding by the previous generation) constraining the choices that can be made now.
In other words, an inheritance of debt that you do not want but cannot avoid easily.
A big part of the issue is that the city has paid the state pensions for teachers, police, fire and other city employees. The teachers in the rest of the state pay their own portion of the state pension. Adding state pension and the required social security (which they cannot draw unless they 1. work a second job, or 2 become disabled), adds up to 16% of their salary. Chicago paying the employees portion of the pension has meant skyrocketing taxes.