MAP grant funding returns to Illinois

With a full state budget now in place, many state programs, higher education institutions, and social services are slowly starting to see state funds.

Universities were among the hardest hit by the budget crisis. Most were forced to make budget cuts, drop programs, and some faced losing accreditation.

During the impasse, Illinois stopped funding MAP grants, which provide assistance to thousands of the state's neediest students for college, but that funding is back and students throughout Illinois are relieved.

Though students at the University of Illinois Springfield still received funding because UIS fronted that cost for students, that was only a short-term fix. "Affordability is always an issue," UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said. "Every year we have students who struggle paying for college." 

Roughly 800 students at UIS rely on map grants; that's about $2.5 million each academic year. That's a hefty burden shouldered by UIS when that funding was eliminated due to budget uncertainty despite being owed millions of dollars by the state.

"We fronted the MAP money for several years to make sure that regardless of what the state does, our students will be able to attend school," Chancellor Koch said.

At UIS, an individual student receives, on average, over $3,000 per year from MAP grants.

The state is paying for this year and last year's map grant funding and all previous years have been back paid.

This story aired on WICS Newschannel 20 on June 18, 2017.

Watch the story online.

March for MAP Grants at Statehouse

College students who once received aid from the state are coping with an old problem.

MAP grant payments to qualifying students of up to $5,000 every year stopped last July 1, the first day of the budget impasse.

288 days later and there are still no payments; Wednesday hundreds of students marched on the capitol to plead for a deal.

The issue has been going on for quite a while, but there are now some serious consequences affecting people in our community.

Some college seniors nearing graduation are forced to take out high-interest loans to make up the difference, some high school students are no longer looking to apply to colleges in Illinois, and many students are having to drop out of college altogether, with no guarantee they'll one day re-enroll.

Listen to this UIS student talk about how the 10 months of inaction from lawmakers could impact her family.

"I'll be a senior in college, he'll be a senior in high school, and she'll be an eighth-grader. If we don't come out and stand for our MAP grants now then my family is not going to have the opportunity to come up and bring themselves up with me. I don't want to be the only person in my family to go to college. I want them to come, but if we don't get the MAP grants, they can't," said Christina Sanchez, UIS junior.

This year, UIS paid out roughly $2.5 million in map grants to about 700 students when the state failed to do so, but Christina Sanchez says she has friends at other colleges that weren't so lucky.

With no deal in sight and UIS unsure about next school year, Christina says the uncertainty is nerve-wracking. She says not many people have a backup plan if the lawmakers' budget crisis forces them to drop out of school.

The story was reported by WICS-TV 20 on April 13, 2016.

Watch the story online.