Coalition of Black Businesses to Call for Defunding of Illinois Community College Board (Chicago, IL) — The Chicago Southland Black Chamber of Commerce and other black business organizations and supporters are calling for the Illinois Community College Board to be defunded until the state-mandated 30% minority participation goals are met by Illinois community colleges. The Illinois House Appropriations – Higher Education Committee, chaired by State Representative La Shawn K. Ford, held a subject matter hearing downtown Chicago last Thursday. At the subject matter hearing, all state universities participated while only one community college participated.
“We were told that the community colleges didn’t want to participate because they felt uncomfortable. They didn’t want to be criticized and they don’t appreciate the criticism that they’ve been receiving. We think their response is horrible. They don’t intend to comply with state law and reach those goals,” stated Dr. Cornel Darden Jr., Chairman of the Chicago Southland Black Chamber of Commerce.
At the Subject Matter Hearing, several universities took the defensive and blamed the system for preventing them from having the ability to reach the goals. The black business organizations and black business leaders argued differently. The sentiment of the black business organizations was that the colleges and universities were just giving excuses.
“We need solutions and not excuses. We need to defund the Illinois Community College Board. Black taxpayer dollars should not go toward funding discrimination against ourselves. The Illinois Community College Board has been communicating with us and we are willing to work with them, however, the madness must stop. We need to halt their funding and develop a working relationship to meet the 30% goals. Until that happens, the community colleges should not get any more of our state funding,” explained Dr. Darden.
Many of the black business organizations and several black businesses have filed witness slips opposing the budget appropriation of the Illinois Community College Board for their scheduled 8:30 am Hearing on Thursday April 4th in Springfield, in front of the House Appropriations – Higher Education Committee. Several black business organizations have registered to give oral testimony at that hearing.
Coalition of Black Businesses to Call for Defunding of Illinois Community College Board
