SPRINGFIELD – Stacy Goodar was in her first year at a private hospitality management school when she learned she would lose several thousand dollars in state financial aid. Though she qualified for the need-based scholarship, the 22-year-old – like about 18,000 other students statewide – was cut off because Illinois' grant program ran out of money.

"It's why a lot of students drop out," Goodar says. "If you can't afford it, what else are you going to do?"

The college scholarships are just one casualty of the multibillion-dollar Illinois pension crisis continuing to wreak havoc with the state's budget, siphoning cash away from areas such as education, public safety and human services and jacking up the cost of borrowing money for the state and its cities, counties and school districts.