Counseling & Admission Professionals Endorse SB 2043
Dear Speaker Madigan:
On behalf of the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC), I write in support of SB 2043 as amended in the 99th General Assembly. We urge you to move this bill out of the Rules Committee for a full vote before the Illinois House of Representatives.
SB 2043 will release state funding for the Monetary Award Program (MAP) that is due to thousands of low-income college students in Illinois.
Illinois college students currently enrolled in our state’s institutions of higher education were awarded MAP funds based on economic need. However, the General Assembly has not appropriated these funds to ISAC for disbursal. Institutions of higher education are doing their best to cover the MAP portion of the student bill for the fall 2015 semester. However, this is not sustainable, and many schools will not have the funds to cover these grants next semester.
Without passage of SB 2043, or a comprehensive state budget, these students will be forced out of college as early as January 2016. Institutions of higher education, especially our community colleges that serve our most vulnerable students, are already cutting vital programs for second semester.
The time to act is now. We urge you to move this bill out of committee for a full vote before the Illinois House of Representatives.
For more information on IACAC and our legislative priorities, please contact me at bgilfillan@woodlandsacademy.org.
Sincerely,
Beth Gilfillan
President, Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling