HB2928eng 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB2928 Engrossed LRB102 14505 CMG 19858 b

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Relieve College Costs Pilot Program Act.

Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly makes all of the following findings:

(1) A college degree involving a substantive and rigorous curriculum that is designed to challenge the mind, enhance knowledge and skills, provide a core, canonical knowledge base, expose students to great literature and writing, and prepare a student for success as a future citizen can be a valuable asset to residents of this State.

(2) Public community colleges and universities offer multiple existing courses of study pertaining to fundamental topics that have historically served as the foundation for degrees in the humanities, including art, philosophy, logic and rhetoric, history, literature, world religions, world languages, and studies of civilizations from antiquity, that, in turn, have served as the basis for intellectual thought and development for generations. These may be classified as high impact courses.

(3) In view of COVID-19, many institutions of higher learning have cultivated courses that can be delivered through online instruction.

(4) Many State residents will experience disruptions or economic hardships when seeking a college degree.

(5) It is in the interests of State residents to identify affordable pathways to secure a college degree.

(6) It is in the interests of State residents to have an accredited 4-year college degree pathway based on high-impact courses that costs less than $20,000 for the entirety of the degree pathway.

(7) It is also in the interests of State residents to employ, if possible, a degree pathway based on educational resources that reside in the public domain or which have been released under an intellectual property license that allows for free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others, including full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. Many foundational materials and original sources used in high impact courses are particularly likely to fall into these categories.

Section 10. Creation of a 4-year degree pathway. A pilot program is created for a 4-year degree pathway, which shall comply with the standards of the Higher Learning Commission, based on texts that served as the core foundational basis for western civilization and the Enlightenment. The degree pathway may not exceed $20,000 for the full degree program. This pathway may be referred to as the Fundamental Issues and Texts Humanities Degree.

Section 15. Relieve College Costs Pilot Program.

(a) Subject to appropriation, beginning with the 2021-2022 academic year or, if funds are not appropriated for the program that academic year, beginning with the academic year in which funds are appropriated for the program, the State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Board of Higher Education shall coordinate with each other to assign a qualified individual to serve as a program director to develop the curriculum for the 4-year degree pathway created in Section 10.

If a source of outside funding for the program director is secured to support the development of the program, the State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Board of Higher Education shall facilitate the approval of the Fundamental Issues and Texts Humanities Degree curriculum pathway for the public institutions agreeing to participate in the pilot program.

(b) Under the program, one public high school, one public community college, and one public university in this State shall be chosen to develop a competency-based baccalaureate degree program for the Fundamental Issues and Texts Humanities Degree. The goals of the program must include all of the following:

(1) To prepare students who complete the program with the requisite skills relating to critical thinking, problem solving, rational inquiry, and oral and written communication needed for employment or further graduate study.

(2) To use open educational resources if available.

(3) To use online course options if available to reduce costs.

(4) To identify pathway courses that can be used to promote dual credit course enrollment in the participating high school.

(5) To have a $20,000 maximum tuition rate for the entirety of the degree pathway.

(c) The curriculum of the pilot program must include course instruction on the canonical texts that served as the foundations for western civilization and the Enlightenment in areas that shall include, but are not limited to, philosophy, literature, history, religion, government and politics, art, and architecture. The program must allow for 2 courses of instruction on global areas outside of western civilization in areas that include, but are not limited to, philosophy, literature, history, religion, government and politics, art, and architecture.

(d) The program director shall prioritize for the pilot program community colleges and public universities that have existing articulation agreements. The program director shall attempt to craft a degree pathway that can be satisfied by existing core courses that are commonly offered at multiple institutions of higher education in this State.

Section 20. Open educational resources adoption incentives.

(a) The State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Board of Higher Education shall create a panel comprised of all of the following members, who shall serve without compensation:

(1) Eight persons from institutions of higher education located in this State appointed by the Executive Director of the Board of Higher Education, including at least 2 representatives from a university, one representative from a community college in Cook County, one representative from a community college with a district boundary that includes some portion of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, or Will County, one representative from a community college in downstate Illinois, and one representative from a nonpublic university that has participated in articulation agreements with a community college.

(2) Two persons each from a high school located in this State that offers dual credit programs, preferably from geographically diverse regions, appointed by the State Superintendent Education.

(3) A person from the State Board of Education appointed by the State Board of Education, a person from the Illinois Community College Board appointed by the Illinois Community College Board, and a person from the Board of Higher Education appointed by the Board of Higher Education.

(4) Two members appointed by the Governor.

(5) One member of the House of Representative appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one member of the House of Representatives appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, one member of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate, and one member of the Senate appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate.

Appointments under paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection (a) shall include at least 4 faculty members, a library professional, an instructional design expert, and 2 academic administrators.

The Board of Higher Education shall provide administrative and other support to the panel.

The Executive Director of the Board of Higher Education shall convene the first meeting of the panel no later than September 1, 2021.

The panel shall seek to identify initiatives to support the use of foundational materials and original sources that reside in the public domain or open educational resource materials in support of the degree program set forth in Section 10 and to make recommendations to the General Assembly no later than December 31, 2022. The panel is dissolved on January 31, 2023.

(b) Each campus of a public university or public community college district shall, upon request of its board of trustees, do both of the following:

(1) Clearly highlight, by means that may include a symbol or logo in a conspicuous place on the online campus course schedule, the courses that exclusively use digital course materials that are free of charge to students or low-cost digital or print options for students.

(2) Ensure that the materials comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the federal Copyright Act of 1976.

(c) Subject to appropriation or third-party funding, the Illinois Community College Board shall establish and administer a grant program to encourage faculty at institutions of higher education to adopt, modify, redesign, or develop courses that use only open educational resources in support of the degree program set forth in Section 10.

Any individual who receives a grant under this subsection (c) shall ensure that any open educational resources used in a course is provided to a student enrolled in the course at no cost other than the cost of printing.

A faculty member who receives a grant under this subsection (c) must submit to the Illinois Community College Board for each of the 4 semesters immediately following the implementation of the course a report that includes:

(1) the number of students who have completed the course;

(2) an estimate of the amount of money saved by a student due to the use of open educational resources in the course;

(3) the number of faculty members, if any, who adopted the course curriculum; and

(4) any other information required as a condition of the grant.

Section 25. Reporting.

(a) After the first cohort of students complete the pilot program under Section 10, the State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Board of Higher Education must submit a report to the Governor and General Assembly detailing the impact of the pilot program on all of the following:

(1) Reducing the costs of attending an institution of higher learning and overall student loan debt.

(2) Elevating the importance of coursework in the classical liberal arts.

(3) Creating a model curriculum that can be replicated through partnerships between other institutions of higher learning and school districts across this State.

(b) This Act is inoperative on and after the State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Board of Higher Education submit the report required under subsection (a).

Section 90. Rules. The Illinois Community College Board, in consultation with the State Board of Education and the Board of Higher Education, must adopt rules to implement this Act.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.