Kaskaskia College hosted a legislative breakfast on Tuesday morning, giving area legislators an opportunity to discuss education-related issues with school officials.
KC President George Evans spoke to the legislators in support of increased funding for community colleges, and the group discussed potential legislation and how those bills could have a positive or negative impact on schools like KC.
Evans says the event included a tour of the renovations that have taken place recently on KC’s main campus.
“We showed them a lot of the new facilities and reiterated to them that is not as the result of any type of tax increase, that the facilities were renovated due to the bonding of the institution at an incredibly low-interest rate, at 2 1/4 (percent) that we locked in.”
College officials and legislators also discussed the student loan debt situation and how community colleges can help deliver a quality education at an affordable cost.
“(We) compared that, the average individual graduating from a university with ‘X’ amount of debt, versus the value of a community college, and the cost to educate a community college graduate versus a university graduate. I reiterated that to them regarding the student loan bubble and how we can be a major solution to that problem because of our affordability.”
Evans says State Representatives Charlie Meier and Blaine Wilhour and State Senator Terri Bryant attended the event. Also attending were representatives from the offices of State Senator Jason Plummer and Congressman Mike Bost.
