College students across Illinois got an A in The Art of Political Influence this week.
On Sunday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation to restore college financial aid to nearly 140,000 low-income students.
The move comes just days after students from all over the state, including those from DePaul University, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State, UIC and Loyola traveled to Springfield to rally and talk to lawmakers about what the MAP cuts mean to them.
The Illinois General Assembly in July cut the MAP budget by half, to roughly $200 million, in an effort to close the state's budget gap. It effectively eliminated the spring semester of funding from the budget, and more than 100,000 students statewide depends on those grants to help pay for college.
Quinn signed legislation despite not knowing the exactly where the state would get the money. He says he hopes to work with legislators to find revenue to better support the program in the future.
Quinn has been lobbying for efforts to restore the funding, while receiving criticism from his Democratic primary challenger. Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes has said Quinn signed off on the cuts to the program in the first place to deal with a gaping budget hole.
