After a Nov. 1 column attempting to balance the comparative value of $20 million in state money given to food pantries against $25 million the Chicago Bears offered to encourage permission to move football operations to Arlington Heights, reader RK chimed in with his typical lilting prose:

“Congratulations in writing about governmental budgeting and program priorities and leaving to the headline, the often illustrative expression, ‘million here, million there, soon we’re talking about real money.’ In the context of public budget, the quote tries to illuminate the practical wisdom of a Midwestern politician, Sen. Dirksen. Yet in a contemporary context the attributed history of the quote is the early 1960s when the federal budget hadn’t yet exceeded $100 billion. So if used in these times, consider a fiscal rework to describe monetary values, ‘billion here, billion there, soon we’re talking about a trillion dollars, real money.’ ”

Duly noted and appreciated – and freshly relevant thanks to Thursday’s Illinois Board of Higher Education meeting at which college professors and students implored Gov. JB Pritzker to release $29 million they say lawmakers budgeted.

When Capitol News Illinois summarized the budget approval in June, Ben Szalisnki wrote “Funding for higher education operational expenses is only going up 1%. Pritzker had proposed 3%. Democrat budget leaders have said the spending plan includes ways to increase funding by an additional 2% if there are significant cuts in federal funding for higher education.”

Reporting for CNI Thursday, Peter Hancock quoted a recent statement from Pritzker’s office: “When the budget was approved by the Legislature and signed, the governor was clear that a 2% reserve would remain in place until we saw stability on education from Washington, which has yet to materialize.”

What’s a better framing for the reserve, 2% or $29 million? What about Pritzker’s proposal versus what Democrats formally budgeted: who wanted to pull which levers of power at what time or, from the other side, who was willing to bear the criticism if the money doesn’t move?

Going back to June, CNI noted the budget also included “A $10 million increase to the Monetary Award Program grants for lower-income college students; $8 million for a minority teacher scholarship program; $2.9 million for the state’s Common App initiative to make it easier for high school students to apply to Illinois colleges and universities at one time.”

That’s $22.9 million toward the cause of higher education – if not college and university budgets directly – which isn’t nothing, at least not if I’m trying to win an argument.

What colleges actually want is to apply Illinois’ evidence-based K-12 funding approach to higher education, a debate that’ll persist regardless of what happens to “only” $29 million in fiscal 2026.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.