Gov. JB Pritzker signs legislation at the University of Illinois Springfield in 2021. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
Article Summary
- In 2025, Illinois fell short of meeting its previous goal of having 60% of its adult population earning either a college degree or high-quality postsecondary credential.
- Recent studies have shown there are significant disparities in upward mobility in Illinois between people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
- A new working group created by a recent executive order signed by Gov. JB Pritzker is supposed to issue its recommendations by Dec. 1, 2026.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker is calling on agencies in his administration to set goals for increasing the number of adults in the state with college degrees or other postsecondary credentials.
In an executive order issued Friday, Pritzker announced the formation of a working group that will review the state’s existing workforce development programs, consult with industry and labor groups as well as local economic development organizations, and recommend new higher education attainment goals.
That order comes on the heels of multiple reports showing the state has fallen short of previous goals for improving educational attainment and that many barriers still prevent people from lower-income backgrounds from completing college and climbing up the economic ladder.
In 2009, the General Assembly established the Illinois P-20 Council to make recommendations for developing a seamless and coordinated system of public education covering preschool through graduate and professional school. Among that group’s recommendations was that by 2025, at least 60% of the state’s adult population should have either a college degree or some other kind of high-quality postsecondary credential.
Past reports offer mixed review
But a report released this past October found the state appeared to be falling just short of that goal. In its biennial report “The State We’re In,” the nonpartisan research and advocacy group Advance Illinois reported that as of 2023, only about 57.4% of adults had finished a degree or credential program. That was still a significant improvement from 41% in 2008.
In his executive order, however, Pritzker cited workforce projections that indicate by 2031, more than 70% of all jobs will require education or training beyond high school.
Meanwhile, a pair of reports last year from the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative, or IWERC, found significant disparities exist in access to the benefits that are supposed to come with earning a college degree.
In a July report, the organization found college degrees do, in fact, lead to higher earnings overall. But even after earning a degree, students from lower-income family backgrounds tend to earn less than those from wealthier backgrounds, even when they earn similar degrees and go into similar careers.
And in a follow-up report in December, IWERC found that while some career pathways that don’t require college degrees can lead to good-paying jobs and upward mobility — including construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade — many of those pathways were promising only for men or for specific racial and ethnic groups.
Pritzker’s order
In his order, Pritzker highlighted statistics showing that since he came into office the state has taken steps to make college more affordable, such as increasing funding for Monetary Award Program and AIM HIGH grants. He also noted that the percentage of in-state undergraduate students at public universities paying no tuition or fees has risen to 44% in Fiscal Year 2025, up from 24% in 2018.
The new working group will consist of representatives from several state agencies, including the Board of Higher Education, Community College Board, State Board of Education, Student Assistance Commission, Department of Employment Security, Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board.
It will also include advisory members from the departments of Human Services, Corrections and Public Health as well as the office of First Lady M.K. Pritzker.
The board is supposed to issue its recommendations to the governor by Dec. 1, 2026.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
