Tim Nuding, Rauner’s budget director, sent a memo to lawmakers Thursday urging them to support that plan.
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Illinois Republicans are balking at a Democrat-backed plan to provide $721.5 million in state funding to community colleges and the Monetary Award Program (MAP).
However Republican Senator Dale Righter said the bill quote “is not real” because there’s no money to pay for the plan.
The bill does not discuss operational funds for four-year universities, but it will allow community colleges to keep their doors open as well as vocational and adult training programs.
Republicans say they want to help colleges and students, but argue the state should pass a full budget.
Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn issued a statement echoing those sentiments.
“So let’s honor those commitments and let’s get the ball rolling on the MAP grants and the funding for the community college”.
“Regardless of the fate of this bill, we want to thank especially our campus legislators for not just keeping the higher education funding crisis in front of the state, but also voting today to give hope to our students that their MAP grants will be funded and hope to our university community that a solution to fund the state’s investment in our institution will be coming soon”, Dunn said.
Democratic Rep. Kelly Burke of Evergreen Park, who chairs the House Higher Education Committee and sponsored the bill, said it’s a first step toward funding all aspects of higher education. Now that the bill has passed, it heads to Rauner’s desk.
Democratic Sen. Scott Bennett of Champaign, who represents the University of IL, has introduced a bill that would fund public universities.
“We may not have $1.7 billion, so someone is going to have to make sure that the most critical areas don’t run out of money”, Righter said. McMillan said that a group of about 50 Bradley students traveled to Springfield to rally in support of the MAP grant.
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Brooke Chilton, a senior in accounting at Illinois Wesleyan University, a private school in Bloomington, is one of 125,000 MAP grant recipients across the state. The students that are counting on us for MAP grants. Governor Bruce Rauner has already said he will veto this bill.
