Report: College Illinois! could need $1.6 billion bailout

Report: College Illinois! could need $1.6 billion bailout

BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters dmckinney@suntimes.com December 13, 2011 1:06PM

Updated: December 13, 2011 8:21PM


Illinois’ financially tanking prepaid college tuition program could require a $1.6 billion bailout from the state to remain solvent during the next 25 years, a new study shows.

If state lawmakers do nothing to prop up College Illinois!, the fund could be drained completely by 2022, financial consultant Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company reported in its analysis for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The report, made public Monday, says if no new contracts are sold going forward, the shortfall will develop between 2022 and 2036 to pay for past contracts coming due. The contracts are supposed to allow parents to pay in advance and lock in lower tuition rates for their children to attend state schools, including the University of Illinois.

Kim Godden, a lawyer who lives in Ukrainian Village, said Tuesday she was “outraged” to learn that there might not be any money by the time her daughter, Hannah, needs it. Godden, 38, enrolled her daughter in the program a month after her birth in 2007.

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