Illinois continues to lead in agriculture education

• Agriculture Education
• SB 2975

SPRINGFIELD—Illinois will begin planting the seeds for stronger agriculture education programs in its schools under legislation sponsored by Senator Bill Cunningham that was signed into law Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2975 creates a grant fund to help school districts defray 50 percent of the personnel costs for an agriculture education teacher. If a school district is creating a new agriculture education program, they could receive a grant to fund 100 percent of personnel costs in their first two years, and 80 percent in the third and fourth year.

“Today the state of Illinois said we prioritize one of our state’s strongest industries,” Cunningham said, who represents the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, which is located in the Mt. Greenwood section of his district. “We should continue investing into the successes of Illinois during these tough times.”

The legislation would also add agriculture education as an area of identified staff shortage which would make scholarship money available for those who want to go into agriculture education. Only 61 percent of agriculture jobs will be filled with qualified graduates in the coming years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Currently, there is a shortage of qualified agriculture professionals. That means there are job openings to be filled but no one there to fill them,” Cunningham said. “We should be emphasizing the great careers agriculture offers to all of our students.”

The legislation was signed into law on Tuesday during Agriculture Day at the Illinois State Fair.

Cunningham closes loophole in gun law to protect domestic violence victims

• domestic violence
• FOID
• HB 6331

SPRINGFIELD—Local law enforcement will work to keep guns out of the hands of people who have orders of protection against them thanks to a new Illinois law.

House Bill 6331, sponsored by Senator Bill Cunningham, will require the state police to notify local police agencies to assist in seizing a Firearm Owners Identification Card when that person’s card has been revoked by a judge in an order of protection case.

“If law enforcement is going to successfully protect victims of domestic violence, all police agencies must have the information they need to enforce court orders," Cunningham said. "As the law stands today, the state police must shoulder the entire burden on their own. That's not fair to the state police or to the victims of domestic violence."

Cunningham measure to expand and extend Rocket Docket becomes law

SPRINGFIELD—Senator Bill Cunningham during the spring legislative session pushed to expand and extend the successful accelerated resolution court, also known as Rocket Docket, in Cook County.

The legislation, signed into law today, would add minor traffic and drug offenses to the program and extends the program’s sunset date to 2019. The Rocket Docket program expedites the adjudication of minor offenses by requiring they be tried with 30 days.

“This program has been a success since day one in controlling overcrowding of Cook County Jail,” Cunningham said. “It also has been a success in lowering the financial burden on taxpayers who fund the jail.”

Currently, the Cook County Sheriff refers defendants to the program and the Cook County State’s Attorney approves those referrals. For any defendant to be eligible they are not allowed to have any prior convictions for violent offenses within the past 10 years and must be unable to post bond.

“It only made sense to keep a successful program running,” Cunningham said.

Senator Cunningham represents portions of Worth, Orland and Palos Townships in the southwest suburbs and the neighborhoods of Mt. Greenwood, Beverly, Morgan Park and Auburn-Gresham in Chicago.

Cunningham higher education reform package becomes law

• college affordability
• higher education
• College of Dupage

SPRINGFIELD – After learning about an outlandish severance package given to an outgoing community college president by a lame duck board of trustees, Senate Bill Cunningham knew something had to change.

Cunningham proposed a package of reforms that was signed into law today, making the hiring and firing process of college administrators more transparent and fair to both taxpayers and students.

The package includes a proposal that would require community college boards and university boards partake in a minimum of four hours of professional development training that ranges from labor laws to ethics training.

“We need to protect taxpayers and tuition payers,” Cunningham said. “Tuition is on the rise in part because of abuse in the hiring and firing of chief administrators of our state universities and community colleges.”

Another proposal in the package would ban a lame duck community college board from approving a new contract with less than 45 days left before the next election.