© 2024 WGLT
A public service of Illinois State University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Heartland Community College Receives 22% Of Estimated State Grant Funding

Heartland Community College
Staff
/
WGLT

  Heartland Community College is among several higher education schools suffering from a lack of state funding. The state eventually covered Heartland’s MAP grants, which help low-income students pay for classes and books. Yet the college’s base operating grants, which help keep the college running on a daily basis, have received little to no money. Heartland’s Vice President of Business Services Doug Minter said the college has only received 22 percent of the funding they need.

“We have an adult ed program, of which the state hasn’t provided any funding for at all, and I believe the grant amount for that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 370 thousand dollars, and then the career and technical education programs we have grant money for that as well which we would normally get around 111 thousand dollars. So when you combine all of that, it’s only about 22 percent” said Minter.

If the college registers a deficit this year, it will be the first time in the school’s history. The lack of grant money has caused Heartland to dip into their reserves to cover the deficit. Minter said there are multiple strategies the college is using to help cushion the lack of funding.

“We’re really asking our budget managers to isolate their expenditures to essential spending only. Our budget called for putting money into reserves, right now it looks like we’ll have to take some out of reserves. We had contingency money set aside so we’ve gobbled that up” said Minter.

The college has a variety of freezes in place for travel and meetings and conferences. Minter said the grant money is a critical piece of the school’s funding model, and to continue on without it would be unsustainable for the college. 

Related Content