Reaching, Engaging Communities to Build Support for Equity-Driven Public Policy

This summer, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (4th District) and Representative Carol Ammons (103rd District) introduced SB 3965, the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities bill. Based on recommendations from the state's Equitable Funding Commission, this historic bill centers student need and considers factors not previously accounted for in higher education funding. These factors include a public university's unique mission and size, student demographics and need, and expected revenue. In determining the distance between what an institution needs to serve students versus what it expects to bring in a given year, the formula calculates the institutions “adequacy gap,” allowing the state to allocate funding in an equitable manner.   

Once SB3965 was filed, the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding (CTHEF) began organizing “listening sessions” across Illinois public university campuses. The Time is Now: Equitably Funding Our Public Universities sessions engage with university communities – college students, university faculty and staff across the state of Illinois in discussions about how more adequate and equitable institutional funding can improve student experiences and lead to more equitable outcomes in college completion and degree attainment.  

 “Community engagement provides a platform for creating awareness of public policies such as SB 3965,” said Isabel Enad, a Senior Community Engagement Associate at Advance Illinois who has been collaborating with other core partners of the Coalition – the Partnership for College Completion, Young Invincibles, and Women Employed — to develop and facilitate such listening sessions. "By socializing and championing policy proposals together, our advocacy for our students' needs strengthens.” 

For Enad, engaging the community encourages widespread participation in increasing public awareness about the bill. The goal for listening sessions is to bring not only higher education leaders into dialogue about policy proposals but to engage members of the community who may not already have existing knowledge of higher education funding but are passionate about advancing access in education.  

Enad said that while the agenda of the listening sessions may differ slightly from one university to another, the primary purpose of these events is to make sure that all attendees have the information and space needed to develop their thoughts about SB 3965. This goal is kept at the core of planning for these sessions, one among many strategies community engagement uses to garner participation and interest. Each listening session is broken into two main components: the presentation on the bill itself, and a portion dedicated audience participation, whether that is a Q&A and/or roundtable discussion. In addition, a post-event survey provided to participants serves as another opportunity to raise questions or express opinions on the bill and learn about more ways to engage with the CTHEF.   

“We are at a critical time in higher education and are actively working to ensure that funding is adequate and equitable,” Enad said. “This means that people should have the opportunity to ask questions, critique, and advocate for this bill.”

A recent listening session held in October at Northern Illinois University (NIU) featured a presentation, panel discussion and roundtable discussions. Women Employed President and CEO Cherita Ellens moderated the program’s panel that included NIU President Dr. Lisa Freeman, NIU faculty member Dr. Simón Weffer, Hernandez, and NIU student Jatavion Young. The panel discussion explored the importance of students having access to the supports and resources they need to persist in attaining their college degree. Young, a junior, shared how some of his friends have been unable to continue their college education due to a lack of resource support. Were the bill to pass, Young said it would be important for additional funding to be invested 'in programs that address individual student needs—academic, financial, and mental health. “Without resources, students don’t know where to go,” he said. 

Jelani Saadiq, who leads Government Relations at Advance Illinois, said that hosting listening sessions such as these makes a difference in helping legislation move forward.  While community engagement teams work to build coalitions with those directly impacted by legislation, government relations teams push for policy and legislative change with the support of coalitions. The primary goal is to ensure that any systems-level change reflects the input of those who are most impacted by the policies. The listening sessions serve as an avenue for members of the community to learn the intricacies of a topic and ask questions. When community members understand a topic, they are prepared to participate in the elevation of a related bill. 

“Higher education policy should reflect the unique needs of universities in Illinois,” Enad said. “Listening sessions are an important strategy in ensuring that policy can respond to on-the-ground experiences as accurately as possible.” 

Eucarol Juarez is the Senior Communications Associate for Advance Illinois.

Learn more about the Coalition for Transforming Higher Educations Funding’s The Time is Now Listening Sessions.

The Success Network: Supporting Partnerships and Coalitions that Strengthen Student Opportunities and Outcomes

A few short weeks ago, the Illinois Education and Career Success Network wrapped up its 11th annual conference. This year’s convening, Awareness to Action: Promoting Equity in Education and Careers, was targeted to secondary and postsecondary education partners, workforce development entities, community-based organizations, advocacy organizations, state agency partners, and national partners who are interested in equitably increasing the number of individuals with a college degree or postsecondary credential in Illinois. Across various sessions, attendees delved into topics such as access to quality education, workforce development, and eliminating systemic barriers that hinder opportunities.  

 “It was wonderful to see over 360 participants from across the State come together to learn, collaborate, and share best practices,” said Cheryl Flores, Director of Community Engagement at Advance Illinois. "It was inspiring to be with so many leaders with such a strong commitment to ensuring students are supported as they progress to and through postsecondary education and into the workforce.”  

 In 2009, the Illinois P-20 Council,  a statewide council that makes recommendations to the Governor, Illinois General Assembly, and state agencies for developing a sustainable statewide system of high-quality education and support from birth through adulthood, set a goal for Illinois to increase the number of individuals with high-quality college degrees and postsecondary credentials to 60% by 2025. While the P-20 Council and state agencies monitor progress against this goal and advocate for state policies that support it, it was clear that local effort and leadership was essential if Illinois was going to move the needle on getting students to and through postsecondary and into the workforce.  

 So in 2013, Advance Illinois, Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University (EdSystems), and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) collaborated to launch the 60 by 25 Network in 2013. The goal? To advance equitable postsecondary attainment in the state by working in partnership with state and local leaders to develop actionable strategies grounded in relevant data, research and best practice.  

 Eleven years later—and having renamed itself the Illinois Education and Career Success Network to make clear that it is committed to change beyond 2025– the Success Network supports communities around the state, working with stakeholders to gather and use data to set goals and monitor impact and collaborate with partners to develop sensible strategies to increase meaningful and equitable postsecondary attainment. The annual Success Network conference allows these networks and communities to come together to share best practices and lessons learned. And the interactive Leadership Community Dashboard helps communities visualize regional educational trend data, and group and compare their information with state averages.  

This year’s conference also spotlighted some timely and high-profile issues. Advance Illinois delivered presentations on "Why Illinois Needs an Equitable, Adequate, and Stable Higher Education Funding Approach" and "The State of Our Educator Pipeline: Strengths, Opportunities, and the Early Impact of COVID-19”. In the higher education funding session, Advance Illinois Senior Policy Associate Eyob Villa-Moges and Senior Policy Advisor Kelsey Bakken discussed challenges in Illinois’ current approach to funding its public universities, and walked the audience through recommendations being considered by the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding to make college more affordable, effective, and more equitable. [NOTE: The Commision has since released its recommendations and propose to increase overall funding to ensure each university has the resources they need to support their unique student body and mission, and to allocate new funds to universities furthest from full funding.  

“Illinois has disinvested in its public higher education system for two decades, and even in years when it attempted to increase funding, it did so using an historically inequitable system that has been driven more by political negotiation than student need. Sadly, the status quo does not serve either students or the state well," Villa-Moges said. “The Commission’s recommendations give us a blueprint to do better, enabling institutions to meet the challenges of educating their student body, both today, and tomorrow." 

And there may not be a hotter topic in the state than ongoing shortages in teachers, paraprofessionals and school counselors and social workers, and the reality that our educators do not come close to matching the diversity of our student population. Jim O’Connor, Project Director at Advance Illinois, shed some light on where we are making progress and where we still have challenges during a presentation “The State of Our Educator Pipeline 2023: Strengths, Opportunities, and the Early Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic”.  Jim noted that the supply of new teachers and principals has increased in recent years (and at a faster rate than the country as a whole), as has the diversity of candidates going into the profession, and districts have added over 5,000 new positions. However, many more educators are using emergency licensure (short-term approvals and provisional licenses), and the supply of paraprofessionals has declined.  As importantly, educator shortages are not the same regionally or by position. Vacancies are concentrated mainly in remote rural and urban districts, and vacancy rates are especially high in Special Education and Bilingual Education. Finally, and sadly, vacancies disproportionately impact Black and Latinx students, students from low-income households, English learners, and students with IEPs. As part of this session, Briana Morales, 2023 Illinois Teacher of the Year and Josh Stafford, Superintendent, Vienna High School, presented teacher retention strategies that are working for their school communities.  

 “If we want all students to have the option to earn a postsecondary degree or credential, we have to care about everything from preschool and home visiting to the strength and diversity of our educators to the affordability of our community colleges and universities and their ability to support every student to and through school,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois.  “And that takes teamwork. So we look forward to the work ahead and the many and powerful partnerships and coalitions and networks that are working everyday to make sure students have strong opportunities and outcomes.”