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| Students Share Stories in Support of MAP Grant Funding |
A number of students, college officials, and legislators gathered to share their stories and support to retain state funding for the monetary award program.
The group gathered Friday at Carl Sandburg College to give their personal stories about how the MAP funding has affected their lives.
One Knox student, Maurice McDavid, spoke about how he was raised by a single mom and how the MAP grant gave him an opportunity to go to college. He said crime rates would go up with students not returning to school because of their lack of funds. He asked legislators and the community if they would rather pay to house someone in jail for a year or to go to college.
74th District Representative Don Moffitt was on hand to hear the testimonies of students and told the group their stories will help him when he goes back to Springfield.
"This is serious. This is important. The group of witnesses here today put this in such elegant terms and you put faces on some cold hard statistics. They are not just budget cuts, and they are not just statistical information, it's real people and it's really impacting them."
Moffitt says legislators are looking at creating a tax amnesty to fund the program, an additional cigarette tax, and possibly some funds the governor has access to can also funnel money into the program.
A tearful student from Western Illinois University shared a simple, easy to remember phase to help lawmakers remember all the students around the state that will be affected if the MAP grant is not funded.
She wanted lawmakers to, show them the money.
(An audience at Carl Sandburg College Friday afternoon listens to how students lives will be changed if their MAP grants are not funded.)
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| 10 02 09 by Newsroom |
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