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Illinois high school students uncertain over college financial aid as they await new, simpler FAFSA

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Illinois high school students uncertain over college financial aid as they await new, simpler FAFSA


Friday, December 1, 2023 12:06AM

ABC7 Chicago 24/7 Stream

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (WLS) — Students applying for college financial aid are awaiting a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA.

The applications are usually released in October. However, a new and simplified application is expected to be available by the end of December.

Schaumburg High School senior Grace Clavio and her counselor Nick Kostalek talked about her plans for college next year, but she’s not yet sure where she will go. The uncertainty is partly because she’s not sure how much financial aid she might qualify for.

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This year’s FAFSA is not available yet. That means students have no way to know yet if they can get enough financial aid to go to college.

“It’s frustrating… toss-up for me,” Clavio said.

Federal government officials have promised to simplify the financial aid forms.

“I can feel a little bit of a panic, but again we’re trying to do as much as we can to help support them,” Kostalek said.

Unlike many other states, Illinois students have to fill out the FAFSA as part of high school graduation requirements. Experts said that may help encourage more students to go to college. However, with the application delay, it could have the opposite effect.

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“Students from low income backgrounds are making the tough decision whether they wanna go to college,” Chalkbear reporter Jason Gonzales said. “That really does hurt them.”

The high schools in District 211 as well as many other schools around the state are offering workshops to help parents complete the financial aid forms once they become available. They have told parents and students to not panic.

Copyright © 2023 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Illinois

Illinois House approves $53 billion spending plan, heads to Gov. Pritzker’s desk for signature

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Illinois House approves $53 billion spending plan, heads to Gov. Pritzker’s desk for signature


CHICAGO (CBS)—Illinois House lawmakers approved the proposed spending plan, which is said to be the largest in the state’s history.

The $53 billion budget was approved with a 65 to 45 vote in the early morning hours after it was passed by the state senate on Monday.

The now-approved budget includes more money for public schools, specifically $350 million in increased funding for schools throughout the state.

More money will also go toward reproductive health centers, with $2 million being committed to increasing security at those centers. Investments are also being made in shelters and other services of $182 million for new migrant arrivals from Texas.

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The budget also includes adding 280 frontline DCFS workers to improve the well-being of children in Illinois.

Sportsbook, retailers, and other corporations seeing almost $750 million in tax hikes to raise more money for the state.

Democrats called the budget balanced, while state Republicans criticized an allotment of half a billion dollars to migrants and healthcare for undocumented people.  

The budget will raise some taxes, but it will eliminate a 1% tax on groceries and will also add a child tax credit. 

Pritzker, in a statement, said he believes it is “A balanced budget that uplifts the working families of Illinois, saves more money in our rainy-day fund, creates jobs, lowers taxes on small businesses, grows our economy, and continues our track record of fiscal responsibility.”

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The over 3,000-page spending plan now heads to the Pritzker’s desk for his signature.



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House Democrats expected to vote on $53.1B budget as Republicans complains of overspending

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House Democrats expected to vote on $53.1B budget as Republicans complains of overspending


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois House geared up Tuesday night to vote on a $53.1 billion state budget but planned to work into Wednesday to get the job done.

Legislative leaders expected that the House would adopt the plan which the Senate OK’d Sunday night. It’s $400 million more than Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed in February and raises taxes and makes other tax code changes to generate $1.2 billion to fund it.

“This budget is balanced, responsible and fair,” House Speaker Pro Tempore Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat, told the Executive Committee. “It invests in children, it invests in infrastructure, it also invests in our most vulnerable.”

Even though the Legislature has gone beyond its self-imposed adjournment deadline of May 24, lawmakers don’t expect conclusion until early Wednesday because of constitutional requirements on the number of days that legislation must be read publicly.

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Republicans complained that Democrats, who control the Legislature, are spending beyond their means and not preparing for what many predict are lean years ahead. Deputy House Republican Leader Norine Hammond of Macomb said she found at least $1 billion in spending that would be pushed off to the following fiscal year.

There’s a $350 million increase for elementary and secondary education, as prescribed by a 2017 school-funding overhaul, but a reduction from what was requested by the state education board in federally mandated school operations. The budget puts an additional $75 million for early childhood education, meaning 5,000 more seats, Gordon-Booth said.

The proposal to provide $182 million to fund services for tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., largely bused from Texas, where they cross the border. And it provides $440 million for health care for noncitizens.

It also pays the state’s full obligation to its woefully underfunded pension funds and chips in an additional $198 million to the so-called rainy day fund to for an economic downturn.

Gordon-Booth said the proposal is just 1.6% more than what will be spent this year. Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, a Jacksonville Republican, noted that the budget is now $20 billion more than a decade ago. He criticized the transfer of dedicated funds, such as $150 million from the road fund and $50 million from a fund to clean up leaking underground storage tanks to shore up public transit.

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“I have a concerns that there are gimmicks in this budget that put us on a path to a giant collision in the future,” Davidsmeyer told Gordon-Booth. “I hope I don’t have to say, ‘I told you so’ when it happens.”

The business tax hikes in particular pushed the General Assembly past its adjournment deadline as lobbyists scrambled to limit the impact. But the spending plan raises $526 million by extending a cap on tax-deductible business losses at $500,000. There’s also a cap of $1,000 per month on the amount retail stores may keep for their expenses in holding back state sale taxes. That would bring in about $101 million.

And there would be $235 million more from increased sports wagering taxes and on video gambling. Pritzker wanted the tax, paid by casino sportsbooks, to jump from 15% to 35%, but it was set on a sliding scale from 20% to 40%.

Another Pritzker victory comes in the form of the elimination of the 1% tax on groceries, another of the governor’s inflation-fighting proposals. But because the tax directly benefits local communities, the budget plan would allow any municipality to create its own grocery tax up to 1% without state oversight.

And those with home-rule authority — generally, any city or county with a population exceeding $25,000, would be authorized to implement a sales tax up to 1% without submitting the question to voters for approval.

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Top seed Illinois falls to Georgia Tech in quarterfinals of NCAA men’s golf championships

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Top seed Illinois falls to Georgia Tech in quarterfinals of NCAA men’s golf championships


Another trip to match play in the NCAA men’s golf championships ended short of a national title for Illinois.

Coach Mike Small’s Illini — who earned the No. 1 seed by finishing 16 shots clear of the field after 72 holes of stroke play — lost 3-1 to eighth-seeded Georgia Tech in a quarterfinal match Tuesday morning in Carlsbad, Calif.

Max Herendeen, who tied for second Monday in the individual competition, was the only Illinois player to win his match, recording the day’s first point with a 5-and-4 rout of Carson Kim.

But the Yellow Jackets clinched the match with wins by Bartley Forrester over Tyler Goecke (3 and 1), Aidan Tran over Piercen Hunt (3 and 2) and NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai over Ryan Voois (3 and 2). That rendered Jackson Buchanan’s match against Georgia Tech’s Kale Fontenot moot.

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“For whatever reason we lost our way and started guiding it and started worrying about things,” Small said in a press release. “I think a lot of our guys fell back on some of the tendencies that they were getting better at all spring, and I think under the pressure and tension they reverted back to some of that stuff.

“We were in control of the match halfway through and the back nine is one we took care of all week, so maybe the pressure got to them and maybe they got ahead of themselves and were thinking of the outcome for whatever reason.”

This was Illinois’ ninth time qualifying for match play since the current format was adopted in 2009, and the Illini have made the NCAA championships 17 times and won 13 Big Ten titles in Small’s 25 years in charge. But they still are seeking the program’s first national championship.

Georgia Tech moved on to a semifinal match later Tuesday against No. 5 seed Florida State, a 3-1 winner over fourth-seeded North Carolina.

No. 6 seed Auburn faced No. 7 Ohio State in the other semifinal as all four quarterfinals were won by the lower seed. The Tigers beat third-seeded Virginia 3-1, while the Buckeyes advanced with a 3-1-1 victory over second-seeded Vanderbilt.

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The championship match is Wednesday at La Costa (6 p.m. CDT, Golf Channel).



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