A recent survey from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission shows that colleges and universities are handling the state budget impasse in a confusing variety of ways. The commission is the state agency that administers the Monetary Award Program, known as the MAP grant, designed to help pay tuition for low-income students.

A new survey indicates that that Illinois' state budget impasse is forcing some MAP grant recipients to drop out of college, or consider doing so.

Following the signing this week of an emergency funding bill for higher education in Illinois, money for the Monetary Award Program, or MAP grants, has been released. But while students attending colleges on the semester system will receive about half the money they were expecting, those on the quarter system will get just one-third.