(20 ILCS 4109/5)

Sec. 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds all of the following:

(1) Historical and continued systemic racism has created significant disparities in college access, affordability, and completion for Black, Latinx, and other underrepresented and historically underserved students in this State.

(2) Improvements in postsecondary access, completion, and success rates are required in order to meet State goals for equity in attainment and will require further investments in the higher education system to support historically underrepresented and underserved groups, including Black, Latinx, and low-income students in particular.

(3) This State's approach to funding education has contributed to racial and socioeconomic inequities in access to resources and educational outcomes.

(4) Great strides have been made in this State in addressing inequity in funding the kindergarten through grade 12 public school system, including the adoption of an evidence-based funding formula, which has resulted in new funds being targeted to the highest-need districts.

(5) Adequate, equitable, and stable investment in higher education is the key to ensuring that every institution of higher education can provide adequate academic, financial, and social-emotional support and services that improve persistence and completion.

(6) In this State, higher education appropriations have effectively been cut in half since fiscal year 2002. Institutions of higher education serving higher percentages of Black students are more reliant on State funds and have been disproportionately harmed by this disinvestment in higher education.

(7) As a result of historic underfunding and level cuts to institutions of higher education, this State's public universities have needed to increase tuition to make up the funding shortfalls.

(8) Combined with the high cost of college and insufficient State financial aid, racial income and wealth disparities caused by structural racism contribute to the accumulation of student debt and make college enrollment and persistence more challenging for Black and Latinx students.

(9) Despite similar numbers of Black high school graduates, about 25,000 fewer Black students enrolled in institutions of higher education in this State in 2018 compared to 2008.

(10) State appropriations make it possible for colleges to provide essential academic services, social-emotional support and services, and institutional aid to students to improve student persistence and completion.

(11) This State must strategically invest in higher education to address wide disparities in degree completion. Public community colleges currently graduate Black and Latinx students at a rate of 14% and 26% within 3 years, respectively, compared to 38% of white students. At public universities, Black and Latinx students currently graduate at a rate of 34% and 49%, respectively, compared to 66% of white students, within 6 years.

(12) This State has a moral obligation and economic interest in dismantling and reforming structures that create or exacerbate racial and socioeconomic inequities in higher education.

(13) This State benefits from a public higher education system that receives adequate and stable resources for student success and that strategically uses those resources to maximize the potential of each public institution of higher education and to maximize the benefits to this State, including, but not limited to, improved college access and attainment and higher median wages for all residents, reduced income inequalities, improved economic output and innovation, increased access and engagement in world-class research opportunities, and improved college enrollment, persistence, and completion of underrepresented and historically underserved students, including Black and Latinx students and students from low-income families.

(Source: P.A. 102-570, eff. 8-23-21.)