MAP has the potential to play a crucial role in the growth and sustainability of Illinois’ economy and can be a gateway to financial stability for communities that are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Illinois college students are facing unprecedented financial barriers to getting a degree — barriers which disproportionately fall on low-income families and students of color. The Monetary Award Program (MAP) is a state aid grant that used to cover the full cost of tuition at Illinois public colleges and universities for all students. Because of underfunding, however, it now only covers a fraction of those costs, and leaves tens of thousands of eligible applicants with no grant at all. PCC shows some of the staggering effects of this underinvestment in students in its latest data visualization, which you can access by clicking the chart below.
Click the chart above or click here to scroll through the full visualization on Tableau.
Historically, when faced with decreased state revenue, higher education has been disproportionately neglected, which passes college costs on to students and their families. This has hit first generation students, low-income students, and students of color particularly hard; 56% of MAP recipients are first-generation college students; of the undergraduates at Illinois’ public universities who identify as Black or Hispanic, more than half are MAP recipients; and 54% of MAP recipients are so low-income that the federal government doesn’t expect them to contribute any resources to pay for college. This has affected all types of institutions in every part of the state. To see the specific impact of underfunding MAP for each sector, institution, and legislative district, click the chart below to access the full interactive data visualization.
What You Can Do
When our state invests an additional $50 million in MAP, it will stay on track to offer grants to all eligible students who apply for the MAP program and serve an additional 15,000 students in this upcoming academic year. You can support this ask by:
- Sending a letter to your representative.
- Amplifying your voice on social media by tweeting the Governor: .@GovPritzker, please keep your campaign promise and ensure thousands of more students have access to higher ed. Invest an additional $50 million in MAP! Students are depending on it. #SupportStudentsNow
If properly funded, MAP has the potential to play a crucial role in the growth and sustainability of Illinois’ economy and can be a gateway to financial stability for communities that are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The state needs to invest in students’ success, supporting their ability to enroll, persist, and complete college throughout these unprecedented times.
Learn more about the Partnership for College Completion today!