McHenry Times

A House bill that would force state universities to allocate a percentage of their admissions spots to first-time freshmen garnered the ire of many Republicans on Tuesday, including Rep. Steven Andersson (R-Geneva), who asserted that the government should not interfere with the public university admission process. 

“The state Legislature should not dictate to Illinois public universities on what their admission criterion and process should be,” Andersson said. “I think that is the most important argument here.”

House Bill 230 would require that Illinois public universities admit first-time freshman applicants who finish High school with a grade-point average in the top 10 percent of their class and satisfy the ACT or SAT benchmarks. 

The University of Illinois and the Illinois Board of Education oppose the measure.

Rep. Andre Thapedi (D-Chicago), the bill’s sponsor, argued that it would increase diversity and keep students from going elsewhere for their higher education. He said the bill would not cost the state money and doesn’t give free education like similar bills introduced in Texas, Oregon, Arkansas, Minnesota and New York. The contents of the bill should be impervious to legal opposition because it is patterned on the recent Supreme Court decision in Fisher v University of Texas in Austin, Thapedi said. 

“There should be no opposition to this bill, ladies and gentlemen," Thapedi said.

Andersson, however, opposed it even though he applauded Thapedi’s efforts.

“I laud the sponsor’s goals," Andersson said. "I think they are good ones. But the bottom line is we have institutions of higher learning who are highly skilled at the process of admissions. If there are problems with those, I think that we should be able to address those in the schools themselves rather than dictating what is, with respect to the sponsor, a little bit of a broad brush painting creating a rule of 10 percent. With respect … I like what you’re trying to do. I support the underlying concept but I must oppose the bill.”

HB230 failed to pass on a vote of 53 to 54. Thapedi asked for a postponed consideration.