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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Education Desk: MAP Students Aren't The Only Ones Whose Grants Are In Limbo

Illinois Student Assistance Commission

When a police officer, firefighter or prison guard is killed or disabled in the line of duty, the state promises to provide their dependents with a college education. But the budget impasse has put that promise on hold, says Eric Zarnikow, director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

“They’re actually eligible for grants that pay the full cost of tuition and mandatory fees. So if there’s not enough money to pay in full, then we pro-rate the award," Zarnikow says. "The challenge is: We don’t know what the appropriation is. So until we know how much money there is, we can’t actually make the awards.” 

Likewise, almost 800 future school teachers who depend on state scholarships of approximately $4,000 per year aren’t receiving their promised funding. 

Some schools may opt to front the money for students, or work with them to find other sources of funding. 

ISAC recently released a survey showing that many colleges won’t credit Monetary Award Program grants for low-income students this spring semester. At least 41 schools responding anonymously to the survey said no; another 12 responded "undecided." The survey went to 133 schools, and 84 responded. 

Zarnikow estimates that 125,000 to 130,000 students currently depend on MAP grants, and he says he sympathizes with students left in limbo.

“You know, most people can deal with almost anything other than uncertainty," he says. "Uncertainty is really difficult because people just don’t know what to do.”

 

 

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.
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