Students across the state of Illinois achieved a major victory in Springfield Oct. 15 when they successfully rallied to restore funding to the Monetary Award Program grant for the spring semester.
But the battle to continue funding for the grant is not complete, as the decision has not been made to continue support in the fall semester. With the state projected to be $12 billion in debt for the next fiscal year, some students are concerned MAP support will not continue.
Student Trustee Nate Brown said the only logical way to find a more permanent funding source for the grant is an increase to the income tax.
Brown said it could prove difficult to convince students that an increase in the income tax is in their best interest.
“I think a lot of students feel that the MAP grant is important to them, but going that next step further and to say, ‘and we want you to increase the income tax,’ would be a little bit harder to sell,” Brown said
Brown said it is his and other organizers jobs to get information to students so they are able to make an informed decision on what they want to do.
Priciliano Fabian, president of Undergraduate Student Government, said it would take a similar effort shown in Lobby Day, when 400 SIUC students and thousands more statewide went to Springfield to restore the grant on a permanently.
“If our representatives and senators don’t hear our voices or know what we want, then nothing is going to be done about it,” Fabian said. “They really need to hear what we are thinking, what we need, what we want from them.”
Fabian said another rally could take place in April or early May before students leave for the summer.
Fabian said he is conflicted on the decision of whether to increase the income tax or not.
“People I’ve talked to maybe aren’t very well educated on the whole income tax increase,” Fabian said. “I guess they don’t know who the income tax will be geared towards, if it’s going to be geared towards everyone or the upper class more than the lower class.”
Gov. Pat Quinn said in a press release Sunday that he is ready to look for ways to fund the grant in the future.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to find revenue to support this critical program,” Quinn said.
Brown said students need to be aware the grant is not secure.
“I think a lot of people feel as if the MAP issue is behind them, that they’ve done all this work, they’ve won and they can now move on,” Brown said. “That’s not the case. It’s great news what happened, but I don’t think anyone wants to continue doing this over and over again.”
Brown said students cannot continue to fight for short-term solutions, and they must fight for a stable funding source.
Stile Smith can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 259 or sts34@siu.edu
