Education and Family

Illinois' Senate President is encouraging Governor Bruce Rauner to rethink his priorities on student aid legislation ... but the governor was quick to repeat his promise of a veto.
                                                                                    
Senate President John Cullerton says he'll hold onto the legislation for a couple of weeks, to give the governor time to "cool off," then he'll end it along. In a statement, Cullerton urges Rauner to "not act rashly, but in the best interest of students."

Illinois Wesleyan University has snagged a $350,000 grant to increase student engagement. The issue is not new. But, Provost Jonathan Green says today's college students are more diverse, poorer, and have less family tradition of going to college than past generations.

The Mellon Foundation is offering the money to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington to develop new courses and teaching methods to reach the new model students. Green says faculty and administrators say they can also be better prepared to meet the intercultural needs of today's students.
    

Chicago Public Schools officials say they're sending layoff notices to 227 administrative employees and closing up nearly 200 positions that were already vacant. The nation's third-largest school district says 57 employees would be able to reapply for 35 positions. The district has been scaling back on administrative positions for months. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said that his goal has been to ``protect the classroom'' from cuts as the district grapples with a more than $1 billion budget deficit.

Illinois' nine public university presidents say in a letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders that a failure to approve a budget soon could leave higher education damaged beyond repair. The letter says funds that have allowed several universities and community colleges to remain open through seven months of Fiscal year 2016 will soon run out and may result in closings. Officials of Chicago State University have said the school will run out of money in March.  

U-S Senator Dick Durbin visited the Southern Illinois University’s School of Medicine in Springfield  on Friday.  He announced an increase in federal funding for medical research for this year.

Durbin says the government will pay $2 billion more to study and treat diseases. The Democrat held up a 3-D model of an infant heart with a birth defect as an example of how advances in medical research can help families. His late daughter, Christine, had the same heart defect as the 3D model when she was born.

Data released by the state show participation in Advanced Placement classes has surged in Illinois in the past five years, while passing rates on AP exams have slipped. The AP results for public high schools obtained through the public records law, show about 95,000 students took some 176,000 AP exams in May, with nearly 40 percent of exams scoring below a 3. A 3 or above is considered passing on the exams' 5-point scale.  

Children will be able to bring canine companions with them to court, starting in the new year. A law taking effect in 20-16 allows dogs to accompany kids, as well as developmentally disabled adults, during trials. The measure's sponsored by Senator Scott Bennett, a Champaign Democrat and former prosecutor.

Illinois will stop giving the ACT college entrance exam and instead start giving high school juniors the rival SAT. The Chicago Tribune reports the company that offers the ACT has filed a protest with the state seeking to cancel Illinois' contract with the College Board, which offers the SAT.