What’s driving all the faculty strikes at Illinois public universities?

The Chicago Sun-Times quotes CTBA’s Ralph Martire extensively as saying: “This significant cutback in state funding has really created some fiscal stress, particularly for those public universities that serve more traditionally underrepresented student populations, like low-income kids, rural kids, minority kids.” Also according to Martire, The roots of public disinvestment lie in longstanding fiscal mismanagement in state government and the cost cutting it necessitated. He calls higher education “a low-hanging fruit” for politicians on both sides of the aisle looking to rein in the state budget.