 "I have made the difficult decision to not give out General Assembly
scholarships this year," Bomke said. "State universities are in a
very difficult financial situation. Years of underfunding and an
economic downturn have stretched our universities to the limit."
Every year, each legislator is given eight scholarships to award
that cover full tuition at any state university. When a legislator
gives out a scholarship, the school that the recipient is attending
must absorb the cost.
"In a typical year we have about 100 applicants for eight
scholarships," Bomke said. "With only eight scholarships awarded,
the other 92 students may face increased tuition rates because the
school doesn’t have the income those other students would have
provided."
Last month the University of Illinois announced that it was owed
over $400 million from the state. All universities in the state
system are in a difficult financial position, but none is worse than
the University of Illinois, where the faculty is taking a pay cut
and tuition will most likely go up by nearly 10 percent.
"Even though it will not fix the problem, the decision to not
offer General Assembly scholarships this year will help provide some
relief to the state’s universities," Bomke said. "We cannot expect
the students not awarded the General Assembly Scholarship to pay for
the tuition of those that did."
[Text from file sent on behalf of
Sen.
Larry Bomke by Illinois
Senate Republican staff]
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