7am News, Sports and Obits
Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
State Board of Education Makes Massive Funding Cuts; GHS Ag Instructor Testifies
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Illinois Board of Education has approved a budget that eliminates after-school and gifted programs and cuts funding for early childhood, reading and foreign language instruction by as much as half.

Members also voted at an emergency meeting Tuesday to severely reduce funding for arts, agricultural education, and advanced placement classes. Money for bilingual studies, the rehabilitation of truant students, and the visually impaired was also slashed.

Advocates who testified at the meeting warned of consequences as dire as more children on the streets. Among those who testified was Corrine Smith, Galesburg High School Agriculture Teacher. Hear her testimony Wednesday beginning at 12pm on AM 1400 WGIL.

Chairman Jesse Ruiz said lawmakers had given the board no choice. They approved an overall education budget of nearly $7.3 billion for fiscal 2010, a 2 percent decrease from the year before.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. WGIL News and Illinois Radio Network contributed to this report.)
07 21 09 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.