Progress Illinois

Tom Green, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, confirmed yesterday afternoon that state health officials did not apply for federal abstinence-only sex education funds made available through the federal health care reform package. Considering that Illinois would have had to fork over scarce state resources to qualify for the discredited Title V grants, it's welcome news. As we wrote last week, the Quinn administration did seek out less restrictive and less costly Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grants.

That doesn't mean teachers across the state will stop pushing the merits of abstinence during sex ed classes. Indeed, Illinois’ school code requires that health education covers the "social responsibilities of family life, including sexual abstinence until marriage." The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health -- which is critical of abstinence-only education -- suggests that the state establish (PDF) an oversight body to monitor sexual health education policies and practices. If elected governor, it's hard to imagine GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady, a firm social conservative, supporting such efforts.

Thanks to timely public and private investments, the digital divide is slowly shrinking in Illinois. As part of the federal stimulus program, Congress allocated $7.2 billion in grants to fund broadband Internet projects nationwide. Illinois has benefited greatly, taking in almost $250 million in infrastructure and adoption dollars. Just this past week, Gov. Pat Quinn unveiled four of those projects, which his administration says will create 600 jobs and connect 1,000 institutions like schools and hospitals to the information superhighway. The state and private companies are getting involved, as well. Lawmakers in Springfield earmarked $50 million in funds from last year's capital construction plan to support broadband projects while communications companies like Frontier are expanding their own service.

Still, there's lots of work to do if Illinois wants to achieve universal broadband access. Statewide, roughly 35 to 40 percent of residents still don't have broadband in their homes, either because it's too expensive or not available locally. As Connect Illinois' interactive map shows, there are huge access disparities in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods. Even if someone in those towns can get online, Internet-access speed is also considerably slower. In June, the Pew Center on the States released a report examining "the challenging steps states must take to improve broadband access." Check it out here.