Illinois General Assembly Scholarship Program

This year, I have made the difficult decision to refrain from awarding General Assembly Scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Every year, each legislator is able to award eight one-year scholarships to cover the full tuition cost at any state university. However, when a legislator gives out a scholarship, the school that the recipient is attending must absorb the cost.

The General Assembly Scholarship program has been under a great deal of scrutiny during the past few years. After years of underfunding and given the economic downturn, it has become evident that the public universities in the state of Illinois can no longer be expected to cover the costs of the scholarship program. The state of Illinois’ state universities have been hit hard by the state budget backlog and loss of tuition income from General Assembly Scholarships, where many schools have required faculty and staff to take mandatory furlough days. Given the increasingly dire fiscal situation of the Illinois state universities, diminishing funds from the state will ultimately result in rising tuition and student fees.

My decision to not offer the General Assembly Scholarships this year is in an effort to mediate the situation and provide much needed relief to the universities of the State of Illinois.

This year, the General Assembly will continue to focus its efforts to provide higher education funding for all students in need.

Thank you for your understanding.