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* Dusty Rhodes…
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission sent a survey to nearly 100,000 students who received MAP grants last fall. More than 10,000 responded, and most took time to answer the open-ended questions about how they were coping with the state’s failure to fund the promised financial aid. One in seven said they might not return to school this fall, or would have “extreme difficulty” doing so. If that same percentage holds true for all MAP students, it would mean 18,000 current students might not re-enroll next fall.
Some said they had no choice but to drop out. “I don’t have the funds to attend school anymore,” one student wrote. “I’m 5 classes from completing my degree.”
The survey was taken before the state legislature agreed late last week to reimburse colleges for the spring’s MAP grants. But there’s still no MAP appropriation for the upcoming school year.
* Related…
* SIU will cover MAP grants for students this fall, but layoffs, other cuts underway
* Mark Brown: State grants no reassurance to low-income college students
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 2:05 pm
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Thank goodness Rauner saved us from this ‘wasteful’ spending. I sure hate it when we educate our next labor force. I mean really, he has no social agenda right? right?
Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 2:16 pm
“18,000 current students might not re-enroll next fall.”
It wasn’t so very long ago that the very idea of measuring a governor based on how many thousands of Illinois students are left unable to attend college would have been unimaginable.
But here we are.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 2:27 pm
An uneducated labor force is a Rauner low cost labor force.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 2:27 pm
@How Ironic
I’ll withhold judgment on whether the money on MAP grants is “wasted” or not until I get a chance to check how successful, and employable, the MAP grant students are. The alternative is work study programs, which I needed to graduate because even in the 1970s Illinois didn’t give money to attend state schools for “scholarship”.
That’s a better approach overall, and smart leadership would put more effort into developing that program. It helps the economy, it helps the students to make better educational choices for employability and give students a “jump start” to the professional working world. If the MAP students make good economic educational choices, that’s a lot more beneficial than MAP grants.
Comment by Illinois bob Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 2:27 pm
Bob,
Once again you tell us that a program crippled or eliminated by Rauner is inferior to some idyllic hypothetical program.
But Rauner isn’t replacing MAP appropriation for the upcoming school year with your vaunted work study program or any other irrelevant fantasy.
He’s replacing it with NOTHING.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:08 pm
The 1 in 7 number is only meaningful if we know the average percent of MAP grant recipients who typically don’t return to school the next year
Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:14 pm
Ok, I’ll bite.
Illinois Bob - you know very well that Map grants don’t fully find these students. You know they are also using work- study, part time jobs, and loans in a hodgepodge grouping.
You cannot compare the 70s to now. I, like you, could do work-study, work in the summer, and get a government student loan. That combination would cover all of it then. It doesn’t now. Undergrad government loans max out for sophomores at about 3250 a semester. Work study is a few hours a week at minimum wage. My son didn’t qualify for Map grants because we made too much money. I don’t begrudge the state helping these students 1 iota.
Comment by Thoughts Matter Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:16 pm
I have some bones to pick with higher ed, but I don’t resent the MAP grants either. I believe that spending should be increased as long as it works to get eligible students thru school. Bob, TM is right, it has changed. When I went to college a widely available teacher ed scholarship paid all my tuition. Our tuition costs are so high (and they are high mainly because as a state we inadequately fund higher ed) as to be almost prohibitive.
Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:24 pm
==The alternative is work study programs, which I needed to graduate because even in the 1970s Illinois didn’t give money to attend state schools for “scholarship”.==
Work/study isn’t an alternative. I received a MAP grant while finishing my bachelor’s in addition to having a work/study (and then a full-time) job. The cost of tuition is only increasing. The cost of attendance at U of I is over $30K now. It was only $18,000 when I attended. The maximum annual MAP award is usually $5K. MAP is a small form of assistance to help worthwhile, but financially strapped students earn college degrees. It’s not a waste.
Comment by NSideLady Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:29 pm
538 had a piece on college educated whites leaving the Republican Party. This is Rauner attempts to make sure they never start.
Comment by Dr X Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:45 pm
Why don’t we find out why it has grown so much in cost rather than just throw more money at it. We need to work both the revenue and cost sides of the equation to be successful.
Comment by Sloman2001 Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 3:53 pm
I said I had some bones to pick with higher ed but I don’t believe in throwing the baby out with the bath water as an approach to dealing with them
Comment by Steve Schnorf Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 4:06 pm
==find out why it has grown so much in cost==
Everything has grown in cost since, say, 1975. Here’s 1 article I googled:
Comparing the cost of living between 1975 and 2015
http://tinyurl.com/p2rb8uq
Comment by HangingOn Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 4:12 pm
@Sloman2001
Costs have grown primarily as a result of lack of available state funds. Take community colleges, the funding formula should be 1/3 state, 1/3 property taxes and 1/3 tuition. However, in recent years funding levels from the state have only been able to hover around 10-20% and property taxes are stagnant for the most part (no one is going to vote for a tax increase referendum in our current political environment) so the answer time and time again has been tuition increases.
The Governor would argue that bloated administrative salaries are completely to blame. This doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the situation. These drastic cuts to higher ed is only making it worse.
Comment by UISer Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 4:14 pm
Hillary, our more likely than not next Prez, has just proposed that public university tuition be tuition free for students from lower and middle income families. If she can get it through Congress, this might be a relief for the kids, who will have to rely less on the ups and downs of state budgets, Illinois be a prime example.
Of course, state schools might become even harder to get into, and there could be other unintended consequences. But a big plus for those who get in.
It’s also a reminder that Illinois isn’t the center of the world, and there are national and international forces which can have huge effects on people’s lives, independent of what our Illinois political masters, a rather backward group, may be doing at the moment.
Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 5:19 pm
Cassandra, how would the free tuition be paid for?
It sounds like campaign proposals that would not actually happen.
Comment by DuPage Thursday, Jul 7, 16 @ 9:37 pm