Lost in the Shuffle: Financial Aid for 137,000 College Students

Lost in the shuffle of the current budget debate, the SJ-R gives some much needed attention to deep cuts in funding for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission currently sitting on Governor Quinn's desk.

But the real hattip goes to The Pantagraph. The Bloomington paper has provided some of the best coverage of the impact of proposed budget cuts, and not just to community-based providers.

They posted this handy chart which details the impact of financial aid cuts by legislative district.

Some tasty tidbits:

- 1700+ students in Senator Christine Radogno's (N-Taxes) district will see the largest cuts in financial aid in the Senate, averaging $2124 per family.

- 6 Senate Republicans will lose a net of more than $4 million each in financial aid to their district.

- State Rep. Karen May (N-Taxes) will see the largest average loss of financial aid in the House, at $2,345 per family, followed by Jim Durkin ($2,159) and Ed Sullivan ($2,154), two more opponents of a tax increase.

136,954 families will lose an average of $1,661 in financial aid. A family of four making less than $126,700 a year would have been better off with Pat Quinn's tax increase.