Our education is one of the most important investments we will make in our lifetime. An education can significantly increase access to opportunities and expose us to a larger world of options, resources and success. And very recently, a large number of students attending Illinois college institutions have been informed that their ability to reach their educational dreams may be more difficult than they planned. Several of these students expected MAP grants (Monetary Award Program), need-based grants which help fund many students tuitions, grants will either be cut in half or completely taken away. State financial aid, in general, has either been dramatically reduced or cut altogether; both options are not in the best interest of the students, who are the future of this nation.

As tomorrow's leaders, we are a group that should be invested in — not a group where cuts or recessions should be made during tough times. During these tough times it is education that will help us as a society innovate and find new solutions to our problems.

Illinois' current budget only funds the MAP grants for this semester. There will be no funding for the Spring semester, so students who received money in the fall will not receive it in the spring.

Students who received that notice earlier this semester were offered little to no advice or solutions as to go about funding their tuition any other way. They were given one option, to go out and get real loans, loans that interest alone would make it almost impossible to graduate college without being tens of thousands of dollars in the bucket. Not only was that advise unfeasible but very impractical for many students. Even more aggravating, though, is how the students were notified. They weren't given much notice that their MAP grants were put on the table for discussion before many of them were cut. They weren't offered other state options.

They were given what will be to many students an ultimatum between a college education or foregoing that altogether. The notice of their loss of grants was poorly executed and blatantly not well-thought through.

For many students, college poses a large challenge in achieving the education we want, the education we deserve as well as the dreams we've been taught to dream. It's the American dream to strive for more; a dream that hard work pays off.

In this instance, where many students have worked explicitly hard to stay eligible to receive the MAP grant, and where students are only capable of attending college because of that money, they are taught not only that their dreams don't count but that they're not worth investing in. That's not what the future leaders of America should think. But that's the message the state is sending in casting students out, basically left to fend for themselves to pay for college. Obviously cuts had to be made as a result of the economy, but legislators picked the wrong cuts. MAP grants are a helping hand to those students who are willing to work hard to receive their educations. It's a economic boost in the long run, and it fosters personal achievement and the ability for those students to contribute back to their communities after graduation. That helping hand is not only slapping the students in their faces but is also limiting our futures.

There are many students who have already taken out the maximum amount in federal loans. The only other options for those students aren't very optimistic or opportunistic. They can either try to find a job, a difficult feat, to keep them afloat on top of their loans. Or they can drop a few classes, slowing their expected graduation date, which also raises their loans interest rates. Last, and certainly least, they can take a semester off or never finish their degrees altogether. That doesn't even take into account the number of students who may never even begin a college education because even though they would have been eligible for MAP grants there will no longer be any.

When cuts need to be made in a recession, education is not the place to make them. There's a dramatic gap between the higher-middle class and the lower-middle class. Now more than ever, students are in need of scholarships, and that gap between classes keeps growing and it won't stop, especially if MAP grants dissolve altogether.

About 270,000 Illinois college students will either receive half of their MAP grants or no aid at all. Whatever it takes to restore MAP grants to their full funding is what should be done. We should be invested in simply because we're worth it. When we strive for higher education opportunities -- the exact same opportunities President Obama wants us to have, then we should be more than capable of reaching them.