Lake Land College, in Mattoon, is among several community colleges to receive emergency funding from the Illinois Community College Board. Other colleges to receive funding include Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Kaskaskia College, John A. Logan College, Rend Lake College, Shawnee Community College, and Southeastern Community College. $3-million will be distributed to the institutions, with each district to receive $428,571.42 in financial support for essential operations.
Colleges were selected based on a formula that assumed that areas with the least amount revenue from property taxes would have the most difficulty operating without state funding. Colleges also had to demonstrate that they were taking efforts to reduce operating costs.
“Despite today’s action, community colleges across the state will continue to struggle without the adequate resources and predictability that comes with a full-year state budget and structural changes to fix the overall system,” said ICCB chair Dr. Lazaro Lopez.
In September, ICCB declared a state of emergency for the entire Illinois community college system due to recent, and drastic, drops in state revenue in the past few years. Illinois has 48 community colleges in 39 districts that serve 850,000 residents a year.