March 24, 2008 - Springfield, IL -- When it comes to helping veterans earn their college degrees, state universities are the ones looking for financial aid. Unfortunately for them, the State of Illinois is no Sallie Mae.

To ensure each Illinois veteran and National Guardsman gets a free college education, the state waives tuition by funding the Illinois Veterans Grant and Illinois National Guard Grant.

But since 2001, shrinking contributions from the Illinois budget have forced the state's public universities schools to carry a bigger load of the veterans' entitlement.

The result: Non-veteran students are paying higher tuition.

''If we were receiving regular state increases, the impact wouldn't be as dramatic,'' Southern Illinois University spokesman Dave Gross said.

State officials, including the office of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, say its each universities' responsibility to pick up the slack when the state lands in dire fiscal straits.

''It is critically important to everyone in our state that these returning veterans receive the educational priorities they have earned,'' said Quinn spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin. ''But just as the state balances conflicting priorities in creating its budget, I'm sure that the colleges and universities are considering their entire financial outlook.''

At the same time, the tuition hikes aren't too burdensome when they are dispersed among a university's thousands of tuition paying students, Austin said.

But school officials would like the state to shoulder a larger chunk of the burden for veterans, rather than gradually letting more and more fall on the backs of institutions.

Since 2001, the last time each grant was fully funded by the State of Illinois, Southern Illinois University has seen its tuition for full-time, in-state students more than double from $4,114 to $8,899 in 2008.

At Eastern Illinois University, the same jump in tuition has taken half the time. Since 2004, in-state costs have grown from $4,132 per semester to $8,748 in 2008.

In the current school year, SIU's projected cost for veteran's tuition is greater than $4.5 million. At EIU, the projection is more than $540,000 and at Illinois State University could spend more than $1.6 million.

"Illinois State University did not receive reimbursement from the State of Illinois for the $600,000 in tuition benefits it awarded to veterans in fiscal year 2007,'' said ISU President Al Bowman. ''If this trend continues, the university will lose nearly $1.6 million in tuition revenue when fiscal year 2008 concludes."

State officials won't attribute the jump in tuition strictly to any one factor, nor is the trending hike in tuition as a result of veteran's waivers solely an Illinois dilemma. Rather, officials say inflation, the cost to operate universities and employ tens of thousands of workers are bound to cause tuition increases.

''Certainly, in an economic downturn, state revenues are often affected. Clearly that has an impact throughout government,'' Austin said.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the state agency in charge of administering student loan programs for the state, points out that Illinois picked up $19 million of the $32 million in veterans and National Guard grants in 2008.

But the cost for sending vets to school is bound to boom exponentially when troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan in coming years. Both state government and universities will be asked to cover the looming costs.

''Illinois has had a long tradition of helping vets attend college since 1921. But it's conceivable that two years from now we'll see an increase in demand,'' said ISAC spokesman Claude Walker. ''We can assume that the next president of the United States may bring home the troops, which there means there will be a lot of people looking for the grant. We'll have to count on the General Assembly to do the right thing.''

In the meantime, universities are pleading with the state and governor's budgeting office to allocate more money for higher education, wherever possible.

''Waivers of tuition for veterans are definitely a factor in calculating tuition rates,' said Paul McCann, business services director at EIU.

Paying the cost -

Here's how much state universities spent on fulfilling veteran's tuition grants between 2004 – 2008:

Eastern Illinois University $1,198,402

Illinois State University - $3,555,328

Southern Illinois University – including Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses - $9,785,218