Senate Democrats champion program to streamline Illinois college applications
By JADE AUBREYCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Senate Democrats voiced their support Thursday for a bill that would create a program to streamline high school students' college application processes, reducing fees and making higher education more affordable.
An initiative of Gov. JB Pritzker, the direct admission program is described as a 'one-stop shop' for students that would bypass all college application fees.
Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, spoke at a news conference in the Statehouse, calling the bill 'a critical step we're taking to make higher education more accessible to students across Illinois.'
'The college admissions process can be a daunting experience, high school seniors and community college transfer students already have enough on their plates,' he said. 'The last thing that they need is a complicated application process filled with extra fees, paperwork and delays.'
Senate Bill 2448 would allow all high school juniors and seniors and community college students to enroll in the program. The bill would allow the Illinois Board of Higher Education to send students a single notification containing all of their admission offers. And students would be able to accept an offer and enroll at the Illinois university they choose through the direct admission program.
The bill is still awaiting passage in the Senate.
Students would have to 'opt-in' to take part in the program and provide their contact information and GPAs to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. The commission would then apply admission criteria from each university to find out which universities the student qualifies for admission at.
Belt praised the program's time- and cost-saving efficiencies, as students who use the direct admission program wouldn't have to individually apply to every Illinois college, and they wouldn't be subject to the standard college application fees at each.
'This means that they won't have to go through the repeated application process and pay application fees,' he said. 'Instead, they'll be able to focus on what matters most, their education and their future.'
All public universities would take part in this program except the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Those universities would offer a 'pre-screened outreach,' where they would directly invite students to apply.
'We have so many bright, talented young people right here in Illinois, and we want them to stay here,' Belt said. 'We want them to pursue their education in our state, to get jobs here, raise their families here, and contribute to the growth and prosperity of our communities.'
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why many voters in deep-red Northern California are fuming about Newsom's maps
When the talk turned to politics at the OK Corral bar in this historic stagecoach town on Tuesday night, retired nurse Ovie Hays, 77, spoke for most of the room when she summed up her view of Gov. Gavin Newsom's redistricting plan. 'I don't want Democrats around,' she said. 'They have gone too far in controlling us. We won't have a say in anything.' Nearby, a man in hard-won cowboy boots agreed with Hays — using much more colorful language. He works as a ranch hand and said he'd just come from fixing a goat pen. 'The morons in charge, and the morons that put [those] morons in charge need to understand where their food comes from,' he said. He declined to see his name printed, like a lot of folks in this part of Shasta County and neighboring counties. In its current form, California's 1st Congressional District, which sweeps south from the Oregon border almost to Sacramento, is larger than Massachusetts or Maryland or eight other states. This is farm and forest country. From the glittering peaks and dense forests of Mt. Shasta and the Sierra Nevada, rivers course down to the valley floor, to vast fields of rice, endless orchards of peaches and golden, rolling grassland full of more cows than people. Voters here are concerned with policies that affect their water supply and forests, given that the timber industry limps along here and fires have ravaged the area in recent years. This is also Republican country. For the last 12 years, this district has been represented by Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a rice farmer from Oroville who is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. But if voters approve the redistricting plan in November, the deep-red bastion that is LaMalfa's district will be cleaved into three pieces, each of them diluted with enough Democratic votes that they could all turn blue. The northern half of the district would be joined to a coastal district that would stretch all the way down to the Golden Gate Bridge, while the southern half would be jigsawed into two districts that would draw in voters from the Bay Area and wine country. Northern California finds itself in this situation because of power plays unleashed by President Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Newsom and others. To ensure GOP control of the House of Representatives, Trump pressured Abbott to redraw Texas' congressional maps so Republicans could take more seats. Newsom responded by threatening to redraw California's maps to favor Democrats, while saying he'd holster this pistol if Texas did the same. The California Legislature is expected to approve a plan Thursday that would put new maps on the November ballot, along with a a constitutional amendment that would override the state's voter-approved, independent redistricting commission. If voters approve the new maps, they would go into effect only if another state performs mid-decade redistricting. Under the proposal, Democrats could pick up five seats currently held by Republicans, while also bolstering some vulnerable Democratic incumbents in purple districts. Now, voters in Northern California and other parts of the state find themselves at the center of a showdown. And from Marysville to Redding this week, many — including those who call themselves Democrats — said they were outraged at what they saw as another example of urban California imposing its will on rural California, areas that city people generally ignore and don't understand. 'Their needs and their wants are completely different than what we need here,' said Pamela Davis, 40, who was loading bags of chicken feed into the back of her SUV in Yuba City. Her children scrambled into their car seats, chatting happily about the cows and ducks they have at home on their farm. Davis, who said she voted for LaMalfa, said voters in California's cities have no understanding of water regulations or other policies vitally important to agriculture, even though what happens in farming areas is crucial to the state overall. 'We're out here growing food for everybody,' she said. 'Water is an issue all the time. That kind of stuff needs to be at the top of everybody's mind.' For years, folks in the so-called north state have chafed at life under the rule of California's liberal politicians. This region is whiter, more rural, more conservative and poorer than the rest of the state. They have long bemoaned that their property rights, grazing rights and water rights are under siege. They complain that the state's high taxes and cost of living are crushing people's dreams. The grievances run so deep that in recent years many residents have embraced a decades-old idea of seceding from California and forming a 'State of Jefferson.' Some residents, including LaMalfa, said if redistricting were to go through, it could further fuel those sentiments. And even some voters who said they abhorred Trump and LaMalfa and planned to vote in favor of the redistricting plan said they worried about the precedent of diluting the rural vote. Gail Mandaville, 76, was sitting with her book group in Chico and said she was in favor of the plan. 'I just am really, really afraid of the way the country is going,' the retired teacher said. 'I admire Newsom for standing up and doing something.' Across the table, Kim Heuckel, 58, said she agreed but also wondered whether a member of Congress from a more urban area could properly represent the needs of her district. 'I'm sorry, but they don't know the farmlands,' she said. 'We need our farmers.' We do, chimed in Rebecca Willi, 74, a retired hospice worker, but 'all the things we stand for are going down the drain,' and if the redistricting in Texas goes forward, 'we have to offset it because there is too much at stake.' In an interview, LaMalfa predicted that California's voters would reject the redistricting plan. "We're not going anywhere without a fight," he said. But should it pass, he predicted that his constituents would suffer. "We don't have Sausalito values in this district," he said, adding that politicians in the newly redrawn districts would be "playing to Bay Area voters; they won't be playing towards us at all." One of the biggest issues in his district recently, he noted, has been concern over wolves, who have been roaming ranch lands, killing cattle and enraging ranchers and other property owners. With redistricting, he said, "if it doesn't go to the dogs, it will go to the wolves." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Petrobras chairman resigns to take position at Brazil's oil regulator
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras said on Wednesday that chairman Pietro Mendes has resigned from the role, as well as from his seat on the board of directors. Mendes is set to become a director at Brazil's oil and gas regulator ANP, after the Senate approved his nomination earlier this week. In a securities filing, Petrobras noted that under its bylaws, the board can elect a new chairman to serve until the next shareholders' meeting.
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
$50K bonuses, reduced age minimums and Superman: How ICE will fill its ranks
Wartime-like recruitment posters. Sign-on bonuses of up to $50,000. Massive hiring events. Reduced age requirements. Superman. It's all been part of the Trump administration's campaign to attract new applicants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And so far, it's brought in more than 110,000 applications, ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan said in an interview with POLITICO. Thirty percent of applicants are military veterans and roughly 10 percent are coming from other federal law enforcement agencies, Sheahan said. The administration's targeting of law enforcement recruits comes amid fears from Democrats and immigration advocates that the Trump administration is going to rely on unqualified recruits to quickly fill the 10,000 new ICE agent jobs they got out of the GOP's megabill. 'This is the first time ICE has ever had a major plus up. So the beauty of that is that we can learn from the best practices of other agencies,' Sheahan said. 'That huge presence that we're seeing from former military and former federal law enforcement — those are people that have been vetted their entire career and have done great work for this country their entire career. And so having them a part of our ranks is really going to be helpful when it comes to a lot of the criticism that we're getting right now.' The speed at which the agency executes the plus up — from 20,000 to 30,000 agents — is a delicate balance. Moving too quickly could amplify concerns that the agency didn't thoroughly vet and train new agents at a time when ICE faces mounting scrutiny. But moving too slowly could delay the agency's efforts to meet the White House's goal of 3,000 daily arrests and 1 million annual deportations. 'We have an opportunity to do this throughout the president's entire term, and we'll continue to do that until our ranks are filled,' Sheahan said. 'Obviously, the pressure is on nationwide for us to serve the American people, and so we want to make sure we deliver for them.' ICE's human resources department is sorting through the 110,000 applications, which include candidates interested in deportation officer roles, as well as for jobs as criminal investigators under Homeland Security Investigations and for attorneys and personnel in the agency's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Sheahan said. As of July, the agency had issued over 1,000 offers to former ICE agents and officers who had left under the Biden administration — a number that has since grown, according to an ICE spokesperson. The administration's efforts to target law enforcement officers, particularly at the state and local level, for recruitment has frustrated local sheriffs. But for the administration, in addition to pushing back on the narrative of unqualified recruits, it also alleviates some of the pressure on vetting and training, given these candidates already come with experience. The criticism facing the agency has reached a fever pitch in recent months, as Democrats, immigration advocates and lawyers decry everything from the masking of agents to ICE's aggressive tactics to increase arrest numbers — with a number of polls showing the agency's decreasing popularity among Americans. A July Quinnipiac University poll found that 57 percent of voters disapprove of how ICE is enforcing immigration law, while another from CNN that same month showed that 53 percent of Americans opposed increasing ICE's budget by billions of dollars. And now, as concerns circulate about the agency's ramp-up, experts are comparing this moment to the rapid build-up of Customs and Border Protection after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States under former President George W. Bush. At that time, the hiring process raised questions about the administration's standards and led to corruption and misconduct at the agency. 'The last thing you want is somebody who has no law enforcement experience whatsoever and is gung ho about working for ICE under Trump,' said Scott Shuchart, a former senior ICE official during the Biden administration. 'That's the worst of all worlds.' It's why some administration officials and Trump allies are warning that no one should expect the number of new agents to increase as fast as the Trump administration has been able to tout new recruitment numbers. The hiring blitz requires building out ICE's human resources department to help sort through the thousands of new applications, officer trainings, office space, vehicles and weapons — a huge undertaking. 'We're trying to be judicious. We're background checking people. We're not taking crazies,' said a Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'There's this myth out there that we're just taking everybody, and we decline a lot of positions.' Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government newsletter.
