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| State Rep. Joe Sosnowski |
By Karen Kidd | Rockford Sun
The recently failed Student Acess Bill, which would have broadened financial aid available to students regardless of documentation status, was defeated because it was money the state doesn’t have to spend, according to Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford).
“Our state universities have already been forced to do more with less during the two-year-long state budget impasse from which they are still recovering,”Sosnowski told the Rockford Sun. “A majority of Illinois House members recognize that wherever you stand on the issue of federal immigration reform, we should not extend taxpayer-funded benefits to those who have not yet attained legal citizenship.”
Sosnowski argued that the priority needs to be on reversing the out-migration of Illinois’ best and brightest students who have been leaving en masse to attend colleges and universities elsewhere.
“Once we lose them, it’s not likely that many of them ever come back,” he said. “This has a long-term negative impact on Illinois’ economy and separates thousands of parents from their adult children who, after college, are likely to start their careers and a family of their own in whichever state they left Illinois for…”
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