Quinn pushes tax hikes to restore student grants

University students face loss of financial assistance in January

09/30/2009 10:00 PM

By PETER SACHS
Contributing Reporter

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Gov. Quinn said higher income taxes are ultimately necessary to pay for student aid.
PETER SACHS/Contributor

At a rally Tuesday that was nearly equal parts politics and a paean to higher education, Gov. Pat Quinn called on lawmakers to raise taxes to fund $200 million in financial aid grants.

The Monetary Award Program had its budget cut in half this summer. As things stand, the 137,000 students statewide who currently receive the grants won’t get any in January.

“We want your education to be completed this year,” Quinn told more than 200 students and school administrators from across the state who came to the meeting at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “We want MAP grants to be available for the second semester, and that’s why we convened this meeting.”

Quinn urged lawmakers to either raise income taxes, hike cigarette taxes or close corporate tax loopholes during their October session. In the long term, though, Quinn said the grants need an “earmarked, dedicated funding” source: higher income taxes.

“We must, in order to pay our bills, in order to invest in things like MAP grants … we do need to raise the income tax in a responsible way,” Quinn said.

So far this year, many lawmakers in Springfield have pushed back hard against Quinn’s suggestion to raise income taxes. A cigarette tax has already passed the Illinois House and would be “Plan B” for funding the grants, Quinn said.

Politics aside, the grants are vital for many of the students who receive them.

Anastasia Lucas, a psychology major at Loyola University, said she’s already taken on extra work this semester, worried that the rest of her MAP grant will fall through.

Lucas works about 40 hours a week. She has a work-study job in Loyola’s public affairs office, a job most evenings at an after-school program and covers the late shift on weekend nights at the university’s athletic facilities.

If she isn’t able to save enough money from those jobs, Lucas knows what will happen.

“I can’t go to school. I’ll have to take the semester off, save more money and return to school in the fall,” she said.

But more often than not, higher education experts say, students who drop out of their college programs don’t re-enroll.

At UIC, many students are in denial and there is a sense of indignation about the looming loss of the grants, said student Sean Murray.

Murray says he’s still heard from many students in recent weeks who weren’t aware of the cuts.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which runs the grant program, started warning students about the cuts in mid-June.

Grants average about $4,000 per student, handed out in equal chunks in September and January.

Last-minute wrangling meant students got the first half of their awards on time, but the commission’s budget is exhausted, and there will be no grants in January at the current rate.

“It’s nice that we’re here today to try to deal with it,” Murray said. “The fact that we have to be here in the first place is something I think students are angry about.”


2 Comments - Add Your Comment



By chi town from south side
Posted: 10/05/2009 8:05 PM

Thank you Peter! Great writing as always!!


By Jo from Chicago's southwest side
Posted: 10/02/2009 2:25 PM

Instead of raising income taxes, why not cut out all those outrageous pensions..like the one Judy Baar Topinka is getting to the tune of more than $150K a year!!! Just cut some of that stuff for a dozen lawmakers and we'd be able to send two dozen kids to school!