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90_SB0223
105 ILCS 5/30-9 from Ch. 122, par. 30-9
Amends the School Code to provide for legislative
scholarship reform. Prohibits a member of the General
Assembly from nominating a person to receive a General
Assembly scholarship if the person is not a resident of the
member's district, or if the person is not a member of a low
to moderate income family as determined and certified to the
member by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, or if
the person is a relative of the member, or if the person is
the son or daughter of either another member of the General
Assembly or certain other elected officials. Also prohibits
a General Assembly member from delegating or transferring his
nominating authority to another General Assembly member and
from nominating a person to receive a scholarship if the
right to make that nomination initially belonged to another
member of the General Assembly who is still a member.
Provides that a legislator who violates any of those
prohibitions shall forfeit his or her nomination rights for a
period of 4 years and shall pay into the State Treasury an
amount equal to the tuition and fees from which the holder of
a scholarship issued as a result of the violation was
exempted from paying. Creates the Legislative Scholarship
Review Committee to initiate proceedings on its own
information to determine if a legislator has violated any
such prohibition. Provides that the Committee is to consist
of 2 members of the State Board of Education designated by
that Board, 2 members of the University of Illinois Board of
Trustees designated by that Board, and one member of the
editorial board from each of certain daily newspapers
designated by the Illinois Legislative Correspondents
Association. Provides that Committee members are to serve
without compensation or reimbursement of their expenses.
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1 AN ACT to provide for legislative scholarship reform,
2 amending a named Act.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing
6 Section 30-9 as follows:
7 (105 ILCS 5/30-9) (from Ch. 122, par. 30-9)
8 Sec. 30-9. General Assembly scholarship; conditions of
9 admission; award by competitive examination.
10 (a) Each member of the General Assembly may nominate
11 annually 2 persons of school age and otherwise eligible, from
12 his district; one shall receive a certificate of scholarship
13 in the University of Illinois and the other shall receive a
14 certificate of scholarship in any other State supported
15 university designated by the member. Any member of the
16 General Assembly in making nominations under this Section may
17 designate that his nominee be granted a 4 year scholarship or
18 may instead designate 2 or 4 nominees for that particular
19 scholarship, each to receive a 2 year or a one year
20 scholarship, respectively. The nominee, if a graduate of a
21 school accredited by the University to which nominated, shall
22 be admitted to the university on the same conditions as to
23 educational qualifications as are other graduates of
24 accredited schools. If the nominee is not a graduate of a
25 school accredited by the university to which nominated, he
26 must, before being entitled to the benefits of the
27 scholarship, pass an examination given by the superintendent
28 of schools of the county where he resides at the time stated
29 in Section 30-7 for the competitive examination. The
30 president of each university shall prescribe the rules
31 governing the examination for scholarship to his university.
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1 (b) A member of the General Assembly may award the
2 scholarship by competitive examination conducted under like
3 rules as prescribed in Section 30-7 even though one or more
4 of the applicants are graduates of schools accredited by the
5 university.
6 (c) A member of the General Assembly may delegate to the
7 Illinois Student Assistance Commission the authority to
8 nominate persons for General Assembly scholarships which that
9 member would otherwise be entitled to award, or may direct
10 the Commission to evaluate and make recommendations to the
11 member concerning candidates for such scholarships. In the
12 event a member delegates his nominating authority or directs
13 the Commission to evaluate and make recommendations
14 concerning candidates for General Assembly scholarships, the
15 member shall inform the Commission in writing of the criteria
16 which he wishes the Commission to apply in nominating or
17 recommending candidates. Those criteria may include some or
18 all of the criteria provided in Section 25 of the Higher
19 Education Student Assistance Act. A delegation of authority
20 under this paragraph may be revoked at any time by the
21 member.
22 (d) Failure of a member of the General Assembly to make
23 a nomination in any year shall not cause that scholarship to
24 lapse, but the member may make a nomination for such
25 scholarship at any time thereafter before the expiration of
26 his term, and the person so nominated shall be entitled to
27 the same benefits as holders of other scholarships provided
28 herein. Any such scholarship for which a member has made no
29 nomination prior to the expiration of the term for which he
30 was elected shall lapse upon the expiration of that term.
31 (e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section
32 or Article, no member of the General Assembly shall nominate
33 or appoint a person to receive, under this or any other
34 Section of this Article, a General Assembly scholarship or
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1 certificate therefor (including but not limited to an unused
2 or vacated General Assembly scholarship) unless that person:
3 (i) is known to the member who is entitled to make the
4 nomination or appointment, based on written documentation
5 submitted to that member by the prospective nominee or
6 appointee, to be a resident of the district which that member
7 represents; (ii) upon written inquiry made by the member to
8 the Illinois Student Assistance Commission is identified by
9 the Commission to the member, in writing and before the
10 nomination or appointment is made, to be a person from a low
11 to moderate income family as determined and certified by the
12 Commission to the member under rules that the Commission
13 shall adopt to administer the provisions of this item (ii);
14 (iii) is not a relative, as defined in this subsection, of
15 the member; and (iv) is not the son or daughter of another
16 member of the General Assembly or of a person who is an
17 elected official of any unit of local government, all or any
18 part of the territorial boundaries of which fall within any
19 part of the district which the member represents. The
20 provisions of this subsection apply in all cases involving
21 the nomination or appointment of a person to receive a
22 General Assembly scholarship or certificate therefor,
23 including those in which a General Assembly member designates
24 to the Commission the authority to nominate a person for a
25 scholarship which that member otherwise would be entitled to
26 award and those in which the scholarship is to be awarded by
27 the member by competitive examination or based on
28 recommendations made to the member by the Commission.
29 However, no member of the General Assembly (i) shall transfer
30 or delegate his or her nominating authority to another member
31 of the General Assembly, or (ii) nominate or appoint any
32 person to receive a General Assembly scholarship or
33 certificate therefor (including but not limited to an unused
34 or vacated General Assembly scholarship) if the right to make
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1 that nomination or appointment initially belonged to another
2 member and that other member has not ceased to be a member of
3 the General Assembly.
4 As used in this subsection, the term "relative" means a
5 spouse, parent, grandparent, stepfather, stepmother, child
6 (including a stepchild or an adopted child), grandchild,
7 brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, half brother,
8 half sister, spouse's parent, nephew, niece, uncle, or aunt.
9 Any member of the General Assembly who is determined by
10 the Legislative Scholarship Review Committee created by
11 subsection (f) to knowingly have violated any provision of
12 this subsection in making a nomination or appointment of a
13 person to receive a General Assembly scholarship or a
14 certificate therefor (including but not limited to an unused
15 or vacated scholarship) shall (i) forfeit, for the entire
16 period of time during which he or she is serving as a member
17 of the General Assembly or for a period ending with the
18 expiration of the fourth calendar year following the calendar
19 year in which the violation occurred, whichever is the
20 shorter period, all of his or her right or entitlement to
21 nominate or appoint any person to receive any such
22 scholarship or certificate, and (ii) shall pay to the State
23 Treasurer for deposit into the General Revenue Fund an amount
24 that, as determined by the Legislative Scholarship Review
25 Committee, is equal to the tuition and fees from which the
26 holder of the General Assembly scholarship or certificate
27 that was issued pursuant to a nomination or appointment made
28 by the member in violation of this subsection has been
29 exempted from paying.
30 (f) The Legislative Scholarship Review Committee is
31 hereby created to initiate proceedings on its own information
32 to determine whether a member of the General Assembly has
33 violated the provisions of subsection (e) of this Section
34 and, if so, the period during which the member has forfeited
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1 his or her right or entitlement to nominate or appoint any
2 person to receive a General Assembly scholarship or
3 certificate therefor and the amount that the member is
4 required to pay to the State Treasurer for deposit into the
5 General Revenue Fund as required under subsection (e). The
6 Legislative Scholarship Review Committee shall consist of 2
7 members of the State Board of Education designated by a
8 majority of the members of that Board, 2 members of the Board
9 of Trustees of the University of Illinois designated by a
10 majority of the members of that Board, and one member from
11 the editorial board of each of the following newspapers,
12 designated in each case by a majority vote of the President
13 and Board Members of the Illinois Legislative Correspondents
14 Association: the Chicago Defender, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago
15 Tribune, and each other daily newspaper (i) which is
16 published in a city that is located outside of Cook County
17 and has a population, as determined by the 1990 federal
18 decennial census, in excess of 100,000 inhabitants, and (ii)
19 which has the greatest circulation of any daily newspaper
20 that is published in that city. Each member of the
21 Legislative Scholarship Review Committee shall serve without
22 compensation or reimbursement of his or her expenses and at
23 the pleasure of the board or other entity by which he or she
24 was designated to serve as a member of the Committee. The
25 members of the Legislative Scholarship Review Committee shall
26 select from their number a chairperson of the Committee,
27 shall meet at the call of the chairperson or a majority of
28 the members of the Committee, and shall organize themselves,
29 elect such other officers from their number as they deem
30 necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the Committee,
31 and establish the procedures to be followed by the Committee
32 in performing its responsibilities under this subsection and
33 subsection (e).
34 (Source: P.A. 87-997.)