Saturday, March 06, 2010
 
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Bomke opts out of awarding General Assembly scholarships

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[March 06, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- State Sen. Larry Bomke announced that he will not be awarding General Assembly scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year. The decision was made based on the dire fiscal situation of the public universities in the state of Illinois.

"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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