NPR Illinois to lose university funding

[TexasTowelie]

Public funds for public radio in central Illinois will be phased out over the next five years. But National Public Radio (NPR) Illinois plans to use this fiscal lemon to make lemonade through enhanced fundraising and increased news coverage.

The $7 million deficit sustained by University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) during the COVID-19 pandemic has required budget adjustments at the university, including the elimination of the institution's $417,000 in direct cash support per fiscal year for NPR Illinois. The public radio station is headquartered on the Springfield campus.

"Much of higher education, including the university, has experienced declines in state funding and enrollment, and quite simply we no longer have the cash funds to support operations like NPR Illinois," said UIS Interim Chancellor Karen Whitney. "Gone are the days when a state university only receives funding from the state and the student. We have now shifted to multiple funding sources and we are asking NPR Illinois to do the same."

According to an outline posted on nprillinois.org, NPR Illinois will see its yearly support decline gradually, starting with a total of $350,000 coming from the university in Fiscal Year 2022, which begins on July 1, 2021. That support will drop to $284,000 in FY23, to $217,000 in FY24, to $150,000 in FY25 and to zero by FY26.

Read more: https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/npr-illinois-to-lose-university-funding/Content?oid=13777666

[Sherman A1]

1. That is sad to hear

I would like to see it go the other way.

[jaxexpat]

2. I'd like to live in a time and a place where fiscal responsibility doesn't favor Nazis.

[Loki Liesmith]

6. What does NPR have to do with Nazis

One way or another?

[jaxexpat]

7. Honest, factual information is anathema to Nazism.

Without it Nazi prattle SEEMS to make sense. Basic stuff, this.

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. Oh really?

"Gone are the days when a state university only receives funding from the state and the student. We have now shifted to multiple funding sources and we are asking NPR Illinois to do the same."

So, where did they go? Why do you need to shift to 'multiple funding sources'? More importantly, where does current funding go? Let's break it down, shall we? You don't want to do that? Not surprising...

[Lonestarblue]

4. Unfortunately, some of the education funding sources are right-wing billionaires.

The Koch Foundation has funded economics programs focused on their free market libertarian views. The University of Chicago and Milton Friedman became the leaders in destroying equity and promoting the trickle down theory that moved most of the wealth to the upper 1%. Partisans are turning our universities into political platforms for their party. Both extremist conservatives and progressives provide funding to education, but I sense that the right wing is doing more to undermine education and include more propaganda.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. Oh, it is more than 'sensing'

They know that propaganda does not work with those who have intelligence and common sense (something I wish was taught in school, because I have known far too many people without a shred of it.)