Progress Illinois

Today, Gov. Pat Quinn continues to barnstorm college campuses across the state as he pushes lawmakers to restore full funding to the Monetary Award Program (MAP). Speaking at a rally on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign, the Chicago Democrat called on the General Assembly to make up for the shortfall during the veto session later this month, even hinting that he would keep legislators in Springfield until the scholarship fund is solvent. "We're not going to let the legislature go home until we get the appropriation for this excellent program that's been around ... for 50 years," Quinn said yesterday.

Plenty of prominent voices in the state have blasted Quinn for purportedly "grandstanding" on the issue. After all, Quinn did sign the budget that gutted half of the program's funding. Comptroller Dan Hynes has hit his primary rival on this point, releasing a statement yesterday describing Quinn's university tour as "public relations masquerading as leadership." Capitol Fax's Rich Miller has been Quinn's most ardent critic on the matter. "Quinn got himself in big trouble and now he's lashing out at somebody else to draw attention away from him," he wrote in his syndicated column this week. "It's just about the oldest political gimmick in the book, and it's so simple that you'd think somebody else would notice."

Does their criticism have merit? It's true that Quinn threw his signature on the spending plan, even telling reporters in July that he had "no reservations about signing the budget." He also could have quietly dipped into the reserve account he secured and at least partially restored funding for the crucial program. But Quinn also made clear from the moment he signed the budget that much more work needed to be done, describing the spending plan as a "bridge to the future" on the night he signed it. Yesterday, when asked by a reporter why he approved the budget in the first place, he reiterated that point, saying that the goal at that point was to "stabilize things." Listen:

Internal mp3

QUINN: Well you have to keep in mind, we have a $10 billion deficit that I inherited on January 29, when I got sworn in. This is the worst fiscal crisis Illinois has ever had. So it’s a day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month process. I signed a budget on July 15, to stabilize things. I said right then and there that we have a lot of work to do, including in October, and I mean it. Some of the legislators need to be encouraged to provide more revenue. We’ve cut the budget $2 billion -- the biggest cuts in Illinois history in the state budget, in the general revenue fund -- but we have to get revenue to pay for the important things, like the MAP grants, like investing in elementary education, health care, as well as taking care of our veterans.

The MAP grant problem shows collective failure by key players across state government. Because of the state's financial instability, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission voted in June to eliminate the entire MAP program for the spring 2010 term. It was no secret that scholarship program was on the ropes. Yet no statewide elected official, legislative leader, or General Assembly member thought it was important to bring up the problem until September, just months before the grants are to be distributed and weeks before the applications were due. There's plenty of blame to go around. Let's hope that all these parties can agree on a solution when they return to Springfield next week.