Morning Spin: Budget impasse leads three dozen community, private colleges to hit students for MAP grant money - Chicago Tribune

Students at some private and community college students soon will feel the state budget pinch. They'll be on the hook for spring semester tuition that would have been covered by state-funded grants were it not for the budget impasse in Springfield. Twenty-one community colleges and 15 private colleges have told the Illinois Student Assistance Commission that they don’t plan on crediting Monetary Assistance Program grants for the spring semester, meaning students will have to pay that portion of their tuition bills on their own. Most of those schools – 59 percent – said they also didn’t credit fall tuition grants. Annual MAP grant awards average about $2,700 and are pledged to students before the school year begins. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-budget-impasse-map-grant-community-colleges-20160107-story.html