BILL KNIGHT

Campaigning for Illinois governor, Republican State Sen. Darren Bailey has core issues: For education, agriculture, lower taxes and term limits; against crime, abortion, gun restrictions and pandemic mandates.
Now he wants his own mandate: University enrollments.
“Bailey’s recent ‘kitchen table’ policy proposal is to require the University of Illinois flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign to guarantee 90% of its enrollment is made up of Illinois residents,” wrote Capitol Fax insider Rich Miller. “Other states have similar requirements mainly because of pressure from parents, and many of those folks live in the suburbs.”
Suburban voters are key in statewide elections. Republican buddy Jim Nowlan, a former GOP state lawmaker, told Politico he thinks Bailey could get 40% of the vote in a lot of the state but not in areas where he’s made “insensitive comments about Chicago, which many suburbanites find unconstructive.”
Indeed, one suspects Bailey’s out-of-right-field issue is less about fairness or a sense of a return on taxpayers’ investment in higher education than creating a sense of resentment that some families aren’t getting the preferential treatment they seek, or — who knows? — keeping Blue State residents or international students out.
Suggesting he could get the legislature to buy in, Bailey said, “Our state’s schools should be for our state’s students. Ensuring our students have access to a great education shouldn’t be controversial.”
OK, but how would the scheme work? Withhold state support if UIUC doesn’t meet his goal? Force UIUC to lower academic standards or in-state tuition/fees (and presumably hiking out-of-state costs)?
Will a Bailey administration send State Troopers to admissions offices like some Prairie State Border Patrol supervising applications and acceptances?
The University of Illinois is a top-tier university that contributes far more to the country than cannon fodder for a fickle job market. And, face it, it’s a non-issue for most of us. After all, 70.7% of UIUC freshmen this year are from Illinois (5,627 students), the university reported Sept. 8. The next-highest group is from other countries (1,335), followed by California (274). In west-central Illinois, two public universities have substantial Illinois enrollments: Illinois State University reports 95.8% of its first-time students this fall are from Illinois; Western Illinois University says 88.8% of its freshmen class this year are Illinoisans.
UIUC Associate Chancellor Robin Kaler told WBBM radio the “biggest challenge” is that many Illinois students can’t afford it. Indeed, UIUC’s in-state tuition and fees cost $16,866 a year, U.S. News reported last month. (However, out-of-state students pay more than double that: $34,316.)
Increased funding (meaning tax support) is less an option than “doing more with less,” Bailey implied Aug. 31.
“The answer with the University of Illinois is not adding more taxes, it’s making the school more efficient. Money is being wasted,” said Bailey, who earned an associate degree at the two-year Lakeland College in Mattoon before launching a private Christian school and serving on the board of education at a public school district south of Effingham.
Maybe. Most schools seem top-heavy, from national universities such as UIUC to K-12 Districts in many communities. But will screening applicants or instituting some sort of “affirmative action” to ensure 90% quotas are met by 2026 solve spending?
Further, college isn’t for everyone anyway. Besides the cost, higher education — even state-supported universities — may offer less meaningful life preparation than community colleges, trade schools or union apprenticeships.
It’s likely Bailey’s proposed dictum is just a clumsy attempt to appeal to aggrieved suburban voters whose kids “settled” for SIU/Edwardsville, EIU, etc.
“Bailey is gonna need infinitely more than this to overcome his geographical and ideological deficits,” Miller said.