Chapin Rose, the Republican state senator from Mahoment, says he's filing a measure designed to launch major changes in higher education.
Citing the high out-migration of Illinois students to other states, Rose hopes to make it easier for Illinois students to enter state schools, by creating a common application for all 12 public university campuses, and guaranteeing acceptance for any student who finished high school with a B average. He also wants the state board to help determine what each public university campus does best, rather than replicating existing programs.
But despite recommendations from other lawmakers, Rose says he doesn't want to close any college campus.
"To simply go out there willy-nilly with an axe like that makes no sense to me. But to keep doing what we've been doing, with this sort of outcompeting ourselves with this growth, growth, growth mission creep mission creep mission creep is accomplishing the same task."
Rose says his legislation is only the beginning of what he hopes will be a robust bipartisan conversation.