Former Congressman and Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard says cuts in state funding are reducing public university operations “to very threatening levels.”
Poshard is a Democrat from Murphysboro who’s been active in Illinois public affairs for more than 30 years, including a failed bid for governor. He retired from the SIU system last month.
In an interview, the 68-year-old shared his thoughts about higher education and Illinois’ troubled finances.
Poshard says public higher education faces a 12.5 percent decrease in state funding if lawmakers don’t approve a Democrat-backed proposal to make the state’s temporary income tax increase permanent.
He says a cut of that size would be impossible to take without “severely damaging the number of faculty and quality of programs we have.”