DeKALB – The Illinois General Assembly approved a $10 million program that would provide free test and licensure prep classes to all public university students along with five community colleges.

The program was supposed to be enacted in January but was delayed, costing Illinois students millions of dollars for test and licensure prep courses, with many students choosing not to take prep courses, according to a press release.

The free test and licensure prep courses through the program include Graduate Record Examinations  for business school, nursing licensure exams and Certified Public Accountant  licensure prep, according to the press release.

Gabriela Rivera, a senior political science major, talked about her experience taking a prep course for the Law School Admission Test exam.

“I took a prep course through Kaplan, and the course that I registered in was close to $1500 and so that, obviously, is a lot of money for being a college student,” Rivera said.

Rivera was able to get her test prep course paid for through the Diversity Scholars Program through the NIU College of Law.

Rivera explained how having to pay significant amounts of money for prep courses can become a financial barrier.

“Some students don’t have the resources, it becomes a barrier. It isn’t then about whether you’re good enough to continue, it’s whether you can afford it,” Rivera said. “And so that closes the door for a lot of aspiring law students, because if you don’t have the financial resources to pay for your education in undergrad, law school is a lot more expensive, and that’s not even counting what it takes to get into law school, like the application fees, the program fees, that all kind of correlates, and so having access to free prep courses takes one of those barriers away.”

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford said in a press release the program could be life-changing for Illinois students.

“The money has been appropriated. We just need to get the program up and running. This program can be life-changing for Illinois students, especially for minority students,” Ford said.