During the fall veto session in October, the General Assembly passed a law giving Gov. Pat Quinn authority to restore second-semester funding for the Monetary Awards Program (MAP), an important initiative that provides need-based college scholarships to almost 140,000 Illinois students. But lawmakers and the Quinn administration never decided where the $200 million needed to cover the shortfall would come from. No additional revenue was approved and Quinn failed to push ahead with a plan to borrow from surplus state funds, leaving the funding source in jeopardy.

In September, Republicans floated a plan that would allow delinquent taxpayers a six-week window to pay back income and sales taxes without interest or penalty. Democrats countered with a proposal to bump up the state cigarette tax. Neither went anywhere. But the GOP hasn't abandoned their idea. In Springfield yesterday, a House panel discussed the tax amnesty plan again, authored by Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Sycamore), who said it "uses dollars that should have been paid and hopefully it can be used and channeled to students that desperately need it." Although no vote was called, it does seem like a proposal worth considering.

Even if the MAP grant problem is solved, however, doing so only ensures kids can pay to attend college. The larger issue is whether the state's universities and colleges have enough money to operate. Unfortunately, this too remains unaddressed.

The funding deficit at the University of Illinois, which forced the administration to implement 10 unpaid furlough days by mid-June for faculty and administrators, has received the most attention, but it's not the only system waiting for payments. Southern Illinois University is owed $100 million. Eastern Illinois is short $45 million and can only cover its cost using tuition money through March. Meanwhile, community colleges across the state -- which are more dependent on the state for basic operations than bigger schools like U of I -- are struggling to make payroll. In total, universities and community colleges in Illinois are owed an estimated $850 million from the state.

Quinn has promised that a portion of the cash generated by a new round of borrowing will be distributed to campuses immediately. But that's just a short-term fix meant to avert an operational disaster; it won't solve the underlying and recurring financial burdens administrators face, the result of  a 17.9 percent cut for public universities and a 13.1 percent cut for community colleges between 1998 and 2008. When the state relinquishes its responsibility to fund the public education system, it is students and their parents who end up footing the bill.

How do the state's gubernatorial candidates propose to solve the problem? All of them acknowledged to the Tribune that the state's university and community college systems have "suffered financially" in recent years.  Yet it's not clear how they intend to fix it. In a GOP gubernatorial debate in December, Jim Ryan and Kirk Dillard both said the General Assembly should redirect existing revenue into schools, but did not make clear where that money should come from. Republicans Adam Andrzejewski and State Sen. Bill Brady (D-Bloomington) meanwhile, both told the News-Gazette they would implement additional cuts. Comptroller Dan Hynes says his tax reform proposal would eventually provide new money, once the existing debts are paid.

It's not clear at the moment when Gov. Pat Quinn's FY 2011 budget will see the light of day.  When it does, however, higher ed funding is one line item to watch.

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user JanetandPhil.