Public Act 101-0093 will shed light on the high sticker price on college tuition

Springfield…..On Monday, the Governor signed into law House Bill 2512 sponsored by State Representative Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst). The legislation targets the high sticker price of college tuition and is designed to shine light on the murky web of financial aid grants, tuition waivers and exchanges that hide the potential discounts and conceal the true cost of a college education at Illinois’ four-year public intuitions. 

Mazzochi railed against
the “smoke and mirrors finance games students and parents have to sort out when
it comes to one of the biggest decisions they will make – what school to
choose.  This bill helps compare apples
to apples for financial investments in higher education in Illinois.  Parents and students alike deserve complete
transparency from the start.  When our
Illinois public universities start handing out glossy brochures implying that a
bottomless pit of financial aid and grants are available, the State’s Board of
Higher Education will report the fine print so that no-one is misled.”

Mazzochi noted the practice of schools sending “financial
aid letters that arrive in the mail with tens of thousands of dollars in future
debt payments, but no meaningful grant money. Because state universities are
now required to disclose not just how much aid they offer, but how they
distribute it to degree-seeking students those students will now have a more
realistic picture of the financial costs and burdens they face; how likely they
are to get true grant money; and how far that grant money will go.”  

Mazzochi, who previously served as the Chairman of the
College of DuPage, emphasized that students need a more accurate picture of the
true cost of education at the time they make their college commitments. “We saw
at the College of DuPage that parents and students are worried about college
affordability, and worked hard to deliver high value at comparatively low
cost.  This should be a statewide goal; we
don’t want students to be put in a decision where they have to take on needless
loans that will drive them into debt for decades in order to finish their
degree.  I have other bills seeking to
make all of our post-secondary education programs more affordable, so that
parents and students can get the most value for their investment in education.”

In the Senate, the chief sponsor of House Bill 2512 was State
Sen. John Curran of Downers Grove.  

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