Budget Delays in Illinois Leave Thousands of Students Pressed for Time and Money

            In Illinois, students are scrambling to come up with money they were not expected to pay during the fall semester to their colleges. Lawmakers are delaying the approval of a new state budget plan, which impacts the funds for grants given to students that need the money. The six month delay has required the students that would rely upon the grants to come up with more than $2,000 before the official start of their spring semester, which is in mere weeks. The funds for these grants comes from the state’s Monetary Award Program, or MAP for short. Normally the budget plan is approved in July, which allows the funds to be sent directly to colleges before the beginning of the fall semester. Schools that are supposed to be sent these funds are left to ask students that use the grants normally to pay up to $2,800. The budget will not be approved before the first of many schools demand the money from their students, as the legislature will not reconvene until January 13, 2016. Similarly, Pennsylvania is experiencing a stalemate in relation to their budget plans. Most colleges in both states fronted the cost for the students for the fall semester, but informed students via email that it will not be the case for the spring semester.

            This stalemate in funding is disheartening as it could hinder thousands of students from returning to their schools for the spring semester. Although some are lucky enough to earn the money through working long hours or raising the funds through crowdfunding sources, it is not fair to any of the involved parties, or victims rather. To delay the decision upon a budget that determines funds for thousands to attend school is ridiculous and outrageous. If this is possible in two different states, it could occur in other states as well. With the future of college looming in my future, I am doing everything possible to raise funds for my attendance by earning scholarships, grants, and asking for money for graduation and birthday presents. To see that a grant I could have in my future could possibly be halted because legislature cannot bring themselves to agree over budgets is terrifying. Especially with the increased cost of attending college, these grants are important to the recipients. This delay seems as if the legislature is declaring that these students education is not worth the energy to come to a reasonable consensus. I hope to see a positive change in this particular or we can expect thousands of men and women to return home without a college degree due to monetary issues, which are quite trivial in relation to how important this level of education is.