Stuart Highlights Measures to Make Higher Education Affordable

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, is promoting recent measures aimed at making a college education more affordable and accessible.

“We’ve all seen how higher education has gotten more expensive and more difficult to access for many in our state,” Stuart said. “That’s why we prioritized measures aimed at keeping college within reach for every student and family in Illinois.”

The latest state budget, set to go into effect on July 1, contains a variety of provisions aimed at improving access to college education. Among these is $100 million in new funding for MAP grants and a new law, sponsored by Stuart, that made the hugely successful AIM HIGH scholarship pilot into a permanent investment in college access. There is also a $22 million investment in a revamped career and vocational education program, the Workforce Equity Initiative, aimed at promoting technical training for high-paying, in-demand careers.

“Today’s college students are tomorrow’s job creators and innovators, so we need to do everything we can to keep them in Illinois,” Stuart said. “We do that by making our world-class institutions affordable, and these measures put us on that path.”