rk2's favorite articles on Inoreader
Maybe the IEA Should Sit Out GOP Primaries
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One would wonder why a major union would want to wade into the soupy slough of Republican politics.
Cost of teaching degree followed by low pay, benefits, seen as obstacles - Illinois Times
Cost of teaching degree followed by low pay, benefits, seen as obstacles  Illinois Times
Sycamore students watch government in action during Illinois Supreme Court stop in DeKalb
Nate Miller, a Sycamore High School senior and a couple of dozen other students involved with the school's Youth in Government Club received ...
Glenbrook Elementary student qualifies for Scripps National Spelling Bee with Kane County ...
... Regional Superintendent at the Kane County Regional Office of Education. “The amount of effort put into preparing for a regional is a feat itself.
Resource Officer at Eisenhower High School in Decatur Under Investigations - Decatur Radio
Resource Officer at Eisenhower High School in Decatur Under Investigations  Decatur Radio
Report: Most Illinois school districts facing 'serious' or 'very serious' teacher shortage - KFVS12
Students from 30 ...
Cardinals super fan known as Rally Runner pleads guilty to storming Capitol in face paint

A St. Louis Cardinals super fan who legally changed his name to Rally Runner has pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol while wearing red face paint and red clothes. Rally Runner pleaded guilty on Friday to a felony charge of civil disorder and is scheduled to be sentenced in July. The 44-year-old Missouri man was wearing red paint on his face and a red “Keep America Great” hat when he used a stolen shield to help other rioters attack police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He is known in St. Louis for running around the Cardinals’ stadium during baseball games while wearing red clothes and red face paint.

The post Cardinals super fan known as Rally Runner pleads guilty to storming Capitol in face paint first appeared on WTAX 93.9FM/1240AM.

Illinois still suffers shortage of teachers

By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the State to ease the strain have made an impact. That’s according to the latest annual survey of school officials from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS), which has been…

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Illinois Regional Superintendents of Schools study: Schools weather critical teaching shortage, but steps remain
By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois schools have taken steps to weather an acute shortage of teachers with the state’s help, but a survey released Tuesday points to ways to improve training, support, and incentives for classroom instructors.

The annual study by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools shows that 9 in 10 schools report a serious or very serious teacher shortage, struggle to find substitute teachers and face fewer than five and sometimes no candidates for open positions — and three-quarters of schools say no more than half of the job hopefuls they see have the proper credentials.

There is a particular dearth of special education and English-learner teachers. Among supporting staff, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists and nurses are critically short. Administrators, too, are in short supply.

Low pay, job demands and burnout have traditionally been root causes of shortfalls, not just in Illinois but nationally. Today’s remote world creates a new distraction, said Gary Tipsord, the regional superintendents association’s executive director.

“It’s competition,” Tipsord said. “When you can live and work anywhere simultaneously, that’s a draw. Public education is in a different economic space today.”

The numbers are similar to those reported in past surveys by the association, which has conducted them annually since 2017. But examples of flexibility, Tipsord said, at the local and state levels are proving successful.

Among them, school administrators responding to the survey pointed to the 2017 school funding overhaul, which directed more dollars to the neediest schools. Other key measures include increasing the number of days substitute teachers may work and, in particular, the number retired educators may substitute teach without affecting their pensions and easing the assessment process for new teachers to obtain a professional license.

Those administrators said steps should include making teacher pensions more attractive, school loan forgiveness, providing money to support teacher preparation in areas with critical shortages, offering more scholarships to education majors and studying salary parity with professions requiring similar licensure and education.

Ensuring teachers are at the heads of classrooms and not overburdened by outside chores would go a long way in preventing burnout, Tipsord said.

On-the-ground support comes from the principal — the school’s instructional leader. The survey found that about 2 in 5 schools have a critical shortage of administrators, more than one-quarter say no more than half of the candidates seeking those jobs are properly credentialed and nearly half have too few candidates for openings. And like the teachers they supervise, burnout over working conditions, increased responsibilities and higher pay in other professions are among the reasons.

Long term, the study recommends emphasis not only on retention but on recruiting teachers among pupils in middle and high schools. Paraprofessionals and teaching assistants who get the teaching bug by working in the classroom should be offered tuition assistance and other support toward earning licenses.

More focused mentoring for teachers and for those instructors who show leadership abilities is necessary, the report said, along with increased funding to recruit principals. People in other careers who want to take up teaching should have obstacles removed and legislation should be approved to ensure those with community college educations get credit hours transferred to universities where they pursue teaching degrees, the report said.

Officials say state veterans homes have reformed after deadly 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, but staffing challenges remain

Lawmakers discuss audit of LaSalle Veterans Home outbreak that killed 36 residents

By COLE LONGCOR
Capitol News Illinois
clongcor@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ veterans affairs director told a legislative panel this week that while state-run veterans homes have better policies in place following a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 36 residents at the LaSalle Veterans Home in 2020, understaffing remains a challenge. “The need for long-term care will explode over the next 20 years,” Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Terry Prince told the Legislative Audit Commission. He predicted long-term care populations would grow by 200 to 500 percent in that span.

He said while IDVA has employees who “are dedicated and devoted and willing to work overtime,” the department has also let its census decrease at state-run veterans homes to keep staff-to-patient ratios sustainable. “It could be easy to say yeah, we’re gonna fill the Quincy Veterans Home and fill it all the way up to 400 people, but you have to have the staff to do so,” he said.

He said staffing remains difficult even though Illinois’ “fantastic” benefits package for staff at veterans homes is “nearly $40,000 higher than the civilian equivalent.”

As for responding to COVID-19 outbreaks, Prince said the department is in a much better place than it was in 2020. Beginning in late October that year, the LaSalle home experienced a COVID-19 outbreak that sickened nearly 200 people, a whopping 85 percent of residents and 35 percent of staff tested positive for the virus, which eventually killed three dozen residents. The deadly outbreak led to legislative hearings and scrutiny of Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration’s response. The General Assembly called for an audit, which was published in 2022. The 12-member Legislative Audit Commission held its hearing to review it on Wednesday, March 20.

The audit made three major recommendations, including mandating testing of staff and residents during COVID outbreaks, defined as two or more cases, and delineating responsibilities between IDVA and IDPH. Additionally, the audit recommended the governor’s office increase oversight of administrative staff and create a senior home administrator position within IDVA. “I want to make sure that it’s recognized that this agency threw everything at this situation as they did during the COVID crisis,” Prince said. IDVA Assistant Director Anthony Vaughn told the panel that when he arrived at LaSalle toward the end of the outbreak in December 2020 as the home’s newly appointed interim administrator, he found “a dedicated staff looking to do the right thing.”

He also compared the scene to a “Marine Corps unit that’s just been through a big battle.” “They’re still recovering, and they’re still hurting, but they want the leadership to be able to move on,” he said.

While a 2021 report from the Illinois Department of Human Services inspector general found fault with IDVA’s response, the auditor general’s report was more critical of the state’s public health department. The auditor general’s office described the previous IDHS inspector general report as “flawed” for its reliance on interviews rather than documentation.

On Wednesday, Scott Wahlbrink of the auditor general’s office told lawmakers that the Illinois Department of Public Health was not responsive to the crisis even though officials there were repeatedly made aware “on almost a daily basis” from their counterparts at the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “IDPH did not identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak,” Wahlbrink said. “It was the IDVA chief of staff who ultimately had to request assistance.”

That chief of staff, Tony Kolbeck, was among those fired after the IDHS report on the outbreak. IDVA Director Linda Chapa LaVia was fired as well.

Pritzker, in response to the audit in 2021, said IDPH was following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance not to visit a congregate facility and risk disease spread when a phone call would suffice.

Prince said one of his major changes has been improving communication.

“I have a direct line to Gov. Pritzker, if I need to call the governor for something,” he said. “I have regular conversations with the IDPH director.”

Since the outbreak, Prince said the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs has made changes to prevent future outbreaks and keep residents and staff safe. Angela Simmons, IDVA senior home administrator, said that IDVA has weekly infection control meetings to review daily tests that are reported to IDPH.

In addition to increased reporting, Simmons said the department has begun including staff from the state’s five veterans homes to develop policies for how to respond to situations ranging from disease outbreaks to daily incidents. “Our policy process right now is stronger than it ever has been,” Simmons said. “We get input from the homes.”

Since the outbreak there have also been major staff changes in IDPH and IDVA. Prince was appointed in April 2021, and IDVA hired a senior home administrator and an agency-wide infection specialist. It is also looking to hire a medical director this year.

Rep. Amy Elik, R-Godfrey, asked Prince if the state’s veterans homes had seen “outbreaks of other infectious diseases” since IDVA overhauled some of its procedures that have served “as sort of a test.” Prince said the veterans homes have seen other outbreaks with better outcomes. “I believe in my heart of hearts that the vaccine has been one of the biggest things that has made this a much different story than back in 2020,” he said. “We are much better positioned.”

Jerry Nowicki contributed to this report.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

Capitol Briefs: Insurance reforms advance as Pritzker announces California trip

Lawmakers look to further regulate youth e-cigarette marketing

By PETER HANCOCK,
JENNIFER FULLER
& ALEX ABBEDUTO
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposal for sweeping reforms in the state’s health insurance industry passed out of a committee Thursday, March 21, and will soon make its way to the full House for consideration. Pritzker first outlined the proposal in his State of the State address in February, insisting it would “save lives and lower health care costs for millions of Illinoisans.”

The proposals are contained in House Bill 5395, dubbed the Health Care Protection Act. Among its significant elements are a ban on requirements for prior authorization from an insurance company before a patient can receive in-patient treatment at a mental health facility, and a ban on the use of “step therapy” in prescription drug coverage.

Step therapy, sometimes referred to as “fail first” therapy, refers to the practice of requiring patients to show that cheaper, alternative medicines or treatments are ineffective before they can be authorized to receive the drug or therapy prescribed by their doctor.

Other elements of the bill include a ban on the sale of short-term, limited duration insurance policies that don’t meet minimum standards under the federal Affordable Care Act; a requirement that insurance companies use “generally accepted standards of care” in their utilization review programs; and a requirement that insurers maintain up-to-date lists of in-network providers. The bill also authorizes the Illinois Department of Insurance to approve or reject proposed rate changes in large-group insurance plans.

Pritzker has said he expects stiff opposition from the insurance industry. However, bill sponsor Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, said she and other advocates have been working with the industry to develop language that would enable companies to implement the changes.

The bill passed out of the House Human Services Committee with a technical amendment on a partisan 6-3 vote. Moeller said she intends to bring forth an additional amendment before the bill is voted on by the full House.

Pritzker heads to California

Pritzker will take Illinois’ film industry tax credits on the road next week, highlighting the incentives in meetings with Hollywood film and production executives.

The Illinois Film Production Service Tax Credit was extended in 2022 and provides tax credits for labor and production expenses through 2032. “The strides Illinois has made in growing our film and television production sector in recent years is nothing short of remarkable, and it’s time to ensure that every production company and studio knows exactly what we can offer them,” Pritzker said.

The trip will also include meetings with tech leaders in the San Francisco area, where Pritzker is expected to highlight the state’s investments in quantum computing and manufacturing.

The governor’s office says film industry tax incentives have sparked hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on productions based in Illinois since 2017.


Dennis Trask

Dennis Trask, a youth prevention coordinator at Comwell, a southern Illinois behavioral and mental health service provider, speaks at a Capitol news conference about teen vaping. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Alex Abbeduto)


 

Vaping measures

Two bills that would limit the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices are awaiting action in the Illinois Senate after clearing committee.

Senate Bill 2662, by Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, would prohibit the advertising, marketing and promoting of vaping devices that could be mistaken as innocuous objects, like school supplies. In a news conference Thursday, March 21, sponsors specifically noted the measure was aimed at products designed to resemble items such as highlighters.

Senate Bill 3098, sponsored by Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood, would ban the sale of e-cigarettes through the internet to individuals under the age of 21.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

 

Illinois teacher shortage persists, survey finds

Cost of teaching degree followed by low pay, benefits, seen as obstacles

By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the state to ease the strain have made an impact. That’s according to the latest annual survey of school officials from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, which has been conducting the survey every year since 2017.

“This matters,” IARSS executive director Gary Tipsord said in an interview. “This is an issue that people care about. They think it is important, and they think it’s critical enough that it needs to be addressed.”

This year’s survey found more than 90 percent of schools responding reported having a “serious” or “very serious” teacher shortage problem. That percentage has changed very little in the last several years, although the question has been asked in slightly different ways in earlier surveys. In 2021, for example, 88 percent of those responding said they had a “problem” with teacher shortages, a percentage that was unchanged from 2019.

Tipsord said the answers school officials give to that question reflect their broad perception of what’s happening in the labor market, their sense of whether colleges and universities are producing enough prospective teachers; their ability to hire qualified candidates to fill vacant positions; and whether the pool of candidates they pick from is larger or smaller than it was in the past. Tipsord said more fundamental changes need to be made to address the long-term issues facing the teaching profession.

“There are certain things that have been done to soften that immediacy of the burden today,” he said. “But I think if you talk to people in the field … there’s still a broad concern that unless we put some concrete things in place, this issue is going to remain pervasive for a longer period of time.”

Respondents to the survey reported filling a total of 3,694 teacher positions this year using “alternative measures,” such as hiring substitutes or retired educators, combining classes, and increasing class sizes, among other short-term remedies, according to the report. Overall, however, the report found that the supply of teachers is not keeping pace with the demand, and that there are not enough new teachers coming into the profession to replace those who are leaving.

The survey also found that teacher shortages are not distributed evenly throughout the state. They are most severe in urban districts and in more rural parts of the state, along with vocational centers around Illinois. The specialties with the most severe shortages were special education and career and technical education. Shortages were also reported in key categories of support personnel, including school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and nurses.

When asked to identify causes of teacher shortages, 54 percent of the school leaders responding cited burnout from working conditions as a cause of their teacher shortage. Another 49 percent cited the availability of better pay in other professions.

Tipsord said those findings point to a fundamental challenge facing the teaching profession, the cost and benefit of pursuing the career. He said when students in high school and college weigh the cost of earning a college degree against the salary they will earn after graduation and the retirement benefits they can accrue, the idea of pursuing a teaching degree becomes less attractive, especially when compared to other career options.

“I think across all areas of industry, education just being one, but in every area of industry today, because of the ability to live and work in two different places at the same time, your workforce views career differently,” he said. “They have the opportunity to look at career differently.”

The report concludes with several recommendations for long-term ways to address the teacher shortage. They include continuing to increase funding for public schools, creating new ways for school support staff to become classroom teachers, and focusing administrative support and financial resources on acute shortage areas. “As we have said year after year, our shortages are the result of generations of factors that we cannot resolve immediately,” Tipsord said in a statement.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

Bills in state Senate would further regulate battery storage and disposal

Measures passed committee unanimously

COLE LONGCOR
Capitol News Illinois
clongcor@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD — Two bills that would regulate battery disposal and storage are awaiting action from the full Illinois Senate after unanimous committee approval.

Senate Bill 3481, sponsored by Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, would require facilities that store electric vehicle batteries to register with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by February 2026. The state’s Pollution Control Board would set the regulations for the proper storage of EV batteries.

IEPA Deputy Director James Jennings said the change “parallels” a state program for used tires. “The primary distinction is that there are going to be some battery storage locations that don’t accept tires,” he said. “And historically speaking, those have been the sites that have been more prone to fires,” he said.

Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said she had concerns about fire safety as lithium batteries were the cause of a fire in Morris on June 29, 2021. The fire prompted intervention from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Witnesses who testified at a committee hearing on the bills earlier this month said registered and regulated facilities practicing proper storage procedures would limit the risk of fires.

Senate Bill 3686, sponsored by Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, would require battery producers and importers to implement an IEPA approved battery stewardship plan starting in 2026. Retailers would be encouraged but not required, to serve as collection facilities.

The plan would regulate the disposal, storage and recycling of certain removable batteries and portable batteries. The bill applies to most types of batteries, with some exceptions. These include liquid electrolyte batteries and lead-acid batteries, like those used in cars. It would also regulate “medium-format” batteries, which include certain batteries based on their weight and watt-hours.

Producers would be responsible for implementing the program, with the IEPA approving and monitoring the plans. Under the bill a $100,000 annual fee would be imposed on the producers. “The main responsibility is with the producers,” Koehler said in an interview. “But there’s also responsibilities that retailers have. So, if you’re involved in selling these batteries, then you also have commitment to being able to recycle those.”

Koehler said that the fee is intended to cover the agency expenses but could be used to start community battery recycling centers in the future. The ability to recycle materials from the returned batteries could help offset the program costs to producers. Producers and retailers are prohibited from charging consumers a point-of-sale fee to cover program costs. “We need to take and mine out the useful ingredients, the minerals that make up batteries, and just make sure that they don’t end up in the landfills,” Koehler said in an interview.

Christina Seibert, the executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, said collection facilities would be within 15 miles of most residents. She also said that mail back programs could be included in collection plans. Storage and recycling locations would be determined in each stewardship plan and approved by the IEPA.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

District 65 to lay off 19 employees
Administrators, teachers, and support personnel included.
Survey: Illinois teacher shortage persists
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the state to ease the strain have made an impact.
Illinois helps schools weather critical teaching shortage, but steps remain, study says

Signs are displayed in front of a classroom at Chalmers Elementary school in Chicago, July 13, 2022. An annual study says Illinois schools are taking steps to weather an acute teacher shortage and lists improvements. The study Tuesday, March 26, 2024 by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools shows 90% of schools have at least a serious shortage, struggle to find substitute teachers and face fewer than five and sometimes no candidates for open positions. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois schools have taken steps to weather an acute shortage of teachers with the state’s help, but a survey released Tuesday points to ways to improve training, support and incentives for classroom instructors. The annual study by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools shows that 9 in 10 schools report a serious or very serious teacher shortage, struggle to find substitute teachers and face fewer than five and sometimes no candidates for open positions — and three-quarters of schools say no more than half of the job hopefuls they see have the proper credentials.

There is a particular dearth of special education and English-learner teachers. Among supporting staff, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists and nurses are critically short. Administrators, too, are in short supply. Low pay, job demands and burnout have traditionally been root causes of shortfalls, not just in Illinois but nationally. Today’s remote world creates a new distraction, said Gary Tipsord, the regional superintendents association’s executive director. “It’s competition,” Tipsord said. “When you can live and work anywhere simultaneously, that’s a draw. Public education is in a different economic space today.”

The numbers are similar to those reported in past surveys by the association, which has conducted them annually since 2017. But examples of flexibility, Tipsord said, at the local and state levels are proving successful. Among them, school administrators responding to the survey pointed to the 2017 school funding overhaul, which directed more dollars to the neediest schools. Other key measures include increasing the number of days substitute teachers may work and, in particular, the number retired educators may substitute teach without affecting their pensions and easing the assessment process for new teachers to obtain a professional license.

Those administrators said steps should include making teacher pensions more attractive, school loan forgiveness, providing money to support teacher preparation in areas with critical shortages, offering more scholarships to education majors and studying salary parity with professions requiring similar licensure and education. Ensuring teachers are at the heads of classrooms and not overburdened by outside chores would go a long way in preventing burnout, Tipsord said.

On-the-ground support comes from the principal — the school’s instructional leader. The survey found that about 2 in 5 schools have a critical shortage of administrators, more than one-quarter say no more than half of the candidates seeking those jobs are properly credentialed and nearly half have too few candidates for openings. And like the teachers they supervise, burnout over working conditions, increased responsibilities and higher pay in other professions are among the reasons. Long term, the study recommends emphasis not only on retention but on recruiting teachers among pupils in middle and high schools. Paraprofessionals and teaching assistants who get the teaching bug by working in the classroom should be offered tuition assistance and other support toward earning licenses.

More focused mentoring for teachers and for those instructors who show leadership abilities is necessary, the report said, along with increased funding to recruit principals. People in other careers who want to take up teaching should have obstacles removed and legislation should be approved to ensure those with community college educations get credit hours transferred to universities where they pursue teaching degrees, the report said.

Capitol Briefs: Advocates push for guaranteed income, child care assistance

By HANNAH MEISEL
& DILPREET RAJU
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com

The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the case of actor Jussie Smollett, who was convicted for staging a hate crime against him in 2019 in a case that drew criticism for Cook County’s top prosecutor.

Smollett made what turned out to be a false police report alleging that he’d been violently attacked by two men in downtown Chicago. The men punched him and allegedly yelled homophobic slurs, put a noose around his neck and told Smollett, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. A month later, prosecutors charged Smollett for putting on the hoax with a pair of brothers he’d paid to perpetrate the attack.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx drew sharp criticism when she suddenly dropped the charges, prompting the involvement of a special prosecutor. The prosecutor charged Smollett again, resulting in his 150-day jail sentence, though that’s been put on hold as Smollett goes through the appeals process.

In his appeal, Smollett argued that he should not have been charged again because he’d forfeited his $10,000 bond after his arrest and done community service – things he claimed constituted a nonprosecution agreement.

But a state appellate court ruled 2-1 in December to affirm Smollett’s convictions, finding that the record did not support Smollett’s claims that there was any such nonprosecution agreement with the state’s attorney’s office.

 

Guaranteed Income

Lawmakers on Wednesday heard testimony on a handful of proposals in front of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Appropriations committee.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, would create a task force to look at the feasibility of implementing a guaranteed income of $1,000 per month to certain Illinoisans – regardless of immigration status – including parents, those who recently gave birth or adopted children.

Former Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar, now senior advisor at the progressive-leaning Economic Security Project, testified in favor of Senate Bill 3462.

“Wages haven’t gone up enough to cover the rising costs of everyday goods like groceries, gas and school lunches, and guaranteed income can help families afford what they need,” Pawar said. “This is one of the first states in the country to actually have a conversation on guaranteed income.”

For one year, the city of Chicago ran a pilot program that gave 5,000 residents a $500 monthly stipend, with no strings attached. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on the program last June.

 

Health care workforce

The committee also heard multiple proposals that would use state money for recruiting and retaining workers in Illinois’ health care industry.

Among them were SB 3399, sponsored by Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, which would increase the wages of frontline, non-executive workers who provide services for those with developmental or intellectual disabilities. Advocates from the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities estimated it would cost the state’s general revenue fund $60 million.

Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, is sponsoring SB 3593, which outlines about $40 million for a grant program to recruit new hires and directly award bonuses to certified mental and behavioral health care providers, including registered nurses, medical assistants, and emergency medical technicians.

Jud DeLoss, CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, backed the bill, arguing those in the field are generally underpaid and need a “competitive wage.”

 

Child Care Assistance Program

Nakisha Hobbs, CEO and founder of the youth social service organization It Takes A Village Family of Schools, said low-income families would benefit from SB 3626, which extends eligibility periods for Illinois’ Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP. 

The bill is also sponsored by Villanueva and would allow parents to rely on state-funded services for longer periods of time during their children’s first years.

“This bill, essentially, is asking is that the CCAP eligibility periods be more aligned with the other sources of funding,” Hobbs said. 

She also said the measure would “provide stability for children who we care about we know that between the ages of birth and five that’s when children’s brains are developing the most.” 

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

 

Public transit buses remain parked after supplier goes bankrupt
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Connect Transit leaders still don’t have a timeline for when they will be able to put their electric buses back in drive after their parts supplier went bankrupt last year.
Teachers, parents at Fairview Heights school confront board about ‘financial difficulty’
“A district that does right by students deserves someone responsible with the dollars that affect our kids and our community,” a teachers union representative said.
image/jpeg Grant School-4.jpg
Illinois teacher shortage persists, survey finds

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the state to ease the strain have made an impact.

That’s according to the latest annual survey of school officials from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, which has been conducting the survey every year since 2017.

“This matters,” IARSS executive director Gary Tipsord said in an interview. “This is an issue that people care about. They think it is important, and they think it’s critical enough that it needs to be addressed.”

This year’s survey found more than 90% of schools responding reported having a “serious” or “very serious” teacher shortage problem.

That percentage has changed very little in the last several years, although the question has been asked in slightly different ways in earlier surveys. In 2021, for example, 88% of those responding said they had a “problem” with teacher shortages, a percentage that was unchanged from 2019.

Tipsord said the answers school officials give to that question reflect their broad perception of what’s happening in the labor market – their sense of whether colleges and universities are producing enough prospective teachers; their ability to hire qualified candidates to fill vacant positions; and whether the pool of candidates they pick from is larger or smaller than it was in the past.

But Tipsord said more fundamental changes need to be made to address the long-term issues facing the teaching profession.

“There are certain things that have been done to soften that immediacy of the burden today,” he said. “But I think if you talk to people in the field … there’s still a broad concern that unless we put some concrete things in place, this issue is going to remain pervasive for a longer period of time.”

Respondents to the survey reported filling a total of 3,694 teacher positions this year using “alternative measures,” such as hiring substitutes or retired educators, combining classes, and increasing class sizes, among other short-term remedies, according to the report.

Overall, however, the report found that the supply of teachers is not keeping pace with the demand, and that there are not enough new teachers coming into the profession to replace those who are leaving.

The survey also found that teacher shortages are not distributed evenly throughout the state. They are most severe in urban districts and in more rural parts of the state, along with vocational centers around Illinois. The specialties with the most severe shortages were special education and career and technical education. Shortages were also reported in key categories of support personnel, including school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and nurses.

When asked to identify causes of teacher shortages, 54% of the school leaders responding cited burnout from working conditions as a cause of their teacher shortage. Another 49% cited the availability of better pay in other professions.

Tipsord said those findings point to a fundamental challenge facing the teaching profession – the cost and benefit of pursuing the career. He said when students in high school and college weigh the cost of earning a college degree against the salary they will earn after graduation and the retirement benefits they can accrue, the idea of pursuing a teaching degree becomes less attractive, especially when compared to other career options.

“I think across all areas of industry – education just being one – but in every area of industry today, because of the ability to live and work in two different places at the same time, your workforce views career differently,” he said. “They have the opportunity to look at career differently.”

The report concludes with several recommendations for long-term ways to address the teacher shortage. They include continuing to increase funding for public schools, creating new ways for school support staff to become classroom teachers, and focusing administrative support and financial resources on acute shortage areas.

“As we have said year after year, our shortages are the result of generations of factors that we cannot resolve immediately,” Tipsord said in a statement.

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