'Do Your Job Gov. Rauner': Thousands Rally At NEIU For Education Funding

The Northeastern Illinois University community is gathering for a mock funeral to mourn the "death of higher education" as part of Friday's "Day of Action."

NEIU Protest

NORTH PARK — Thousands of protestors gathered at Northeastern Illinois University Friday to demand fair funding for public education in Illinois.

NEIU staff, faculty and students were joined by Chicago Public School teachers from dozens of surrounding schools, members of various unions, neighborhood residents, and supporters from as far away as California and New York.

During the "Day of Action," they carried mock tombstones and coffins to symbolically mourn the death of higher education, and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

"What you see here is the outrage of a community at the blatant disregard by a governor of children," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who delivered a fiery speech at Friday's rally.

"How do we say to kids that college is the future, but not so much if you're poor in Illinois?" she asked.

Referencing the millions of dollars in grant funds for college students that have been a casualty of the Illinois budget impasse, Weingarten said, "That is sacrilege."

"Do your job Gov. Rauner — and your job is to not hurt schools and not disinvest. Your job is to help us help our children," she said. "I am tired of people who made it in America pulling up that ladder of opportunity from everyone else."

In his budget address earlier this year, Rauner proposed slashing the 2016-17 budget for higher education by 20 percent. In February he vetoed the Monetary Award Program grants for students because they would increase the state budget deficit.

Instead, he favors what's called the Unbalanced Budget Response Act, which would allow him to transfer balances within the budget in order to cover various expenditures, a move he called "a far more fiscally responsible, and constitutional plan for funding higher education.”

Ten months into a state budget stalemate, NEIU has tapped out its reserves to plug a $34 million appropriations hole and fronted students an additional $7.5 million in grant funds.

In March, NEIU implemented weekly furlough days for administrative, professional and non-negotiated employees, along with spending and hiring freezes, in order to keep the school open through fall.

Universities like NEIU, Chicago State and Governors State, which tend to serve lower-income students, "are really the foundation of our democracy," in large part because of their affordability, said associate professor Jon Hageman.

"This is really the stepladder to the American Dream," he said.

As recently as 2002, state appropriations accounted for two-thirds of Northeastern Illinois's budget; that figure now stands at less than 40 percent, according to Hageman.

"So the state has been pulling back for some time," he said. "What we're looking at today is that the state has virtually abdicated its responsibility to education."

Jessica Alaniz, 22 and a junior at NEIU, said students feel uncertain about their future in Illinois.

The governor talks about "cutting waste" from his budget, and "apparently that's all we are," she said.

Mia Engelmann and Anastaseya Kulikova, both CPS high school freshmen, joined the NEIU protest after spending the early morning on the picket line at their former elementary school, Disney Magnet.

"We want to be able to go to college affordably," said Engelmann, Class of 2019 at Whitney Young.

For Kulikova, whose mother is an immigrant from Ukraine, NEIU is very much the stepladder than Hageman referenced.

"My mom wants me to have a future," said the teenager. "I feel like college is what a lot of immigrant families look up to. It's why people come here [to the U.S.]."

Following the protest, the crowd at NEIU prepared to join a Chicago Teachers Union rally Downtown on Friday afternoon.

Scenes from the NEIU rally: