SPRINGFIELD – A plan to increase state funding for area school districts passed the Senate today with support from State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D – Chicago Heights).

“Illinois’ school funding formula hasn’t been updated in decades,” Hutchinson said. “The proposal I supported today would target more state resources to the schools that need it the most.”

Senate Bill 231 would update Illinois’ current method of funding school districts by targeting state monies based on a Weighted Foundation Level tied to characteristics of each school district, including low-income pupil count, the number of English language learners and special education students.

Read more ...

SPRINGFIELD – Since Illinois’ budget impasse began more than eight months ago, more than 1,500 youth across the state have been kicked out of after-school programs that previously received funding from the Teen REACH program. Teen REACH provides grants to support local communities’ after-school programs that serve at-risk youth age 6 to 17.

“Study after study highlights the direct link between investing in after-school programs and higher levels of student success and lower rates of crime,” State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D – Chicago Heights) said. “This is especially true in some of our most impoverished neighborhoods and communities.”

Read more ...

For 20 years, Pay Equity Day has highlighted the disparity in workplace earnings between men and women. The day, held this year on April 12, represents the extra days a full-time working woman would have to work just to make the same as a man in the previous year.

State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D – Chicago Heights) passed a resolution in the Senate today highlighting the issue.

“If women earned the exact same amount as our male counterparts, we would be able to afford seven additional months of mortgage and utility payments or afford nearly two years’ worth of food in one’s lifetime.”

Read more ...

SPRINGFIELD – Nearly 45 percent of private sector workers in Illinois do not receive a single paid sick day. For these workers, it can only take one life event, whether it be a car accident, a sick child or a family emergency, to cause long-term financial pain and in some cases even job loss.

In response to this reality, State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D – Chicago Heights) passed a proposal out of the Senate Executive Committee this afternoon that would make Illinois the sixth state in the nation to require some form of paid sick time.

“Far too many Illinois workers are living paycheck to paycheck unable to afford taking just one day off,” State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D – Chicago Heights) said. “We’re an outlier when you look at every other industrialized country in the world.”

Read more ...