Public universities and community colleges across Illinois would see a substantial portion of their state funding reinstated under legislation the Illinois Senate approved Wednesday.

Senator Donne Trotter (D-Chicago) led efforts to restore $453.4 million in higher education funding. Included is $46 million for the popular student assistance program known as MAP, which provides assistance for low-income college students.

SPRINGFIELD — To ensure individuals who are recovering from drug addiction can continue to take the most effective medical treatments available, State Sen. Melinda Bush advanced a proposal that would ensure defendants in drug court still receive prescription medication.

“We need to shift our efforts toward treating drug addiction like what it is: A devastating health concern that becomes the root cause of other personal and societal ills,” said Bush, D-Grayslake. “By ensuring that people going through drug court have access to these proven treatments, we’re fighting to cure an illness, not penalize it.”

Communities in rural Illinois would face one less obstacle in acquiring broadband internet access under a measure that Senator Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) advanced Wednesday in the General Assembly.

Senate Bill 2237, which passed in the Senate and now goes to the House for consideration, would allow broadband internet providers to use existing highway right-of-ways for laying fiber optic cable.

These are the same right-of-ways that water and sewer utilities use for laying pipe. The property is not productive farmland, suitable for building or used for any purpose other than roadways, nor is it subjected to property taxes.

SPRINGFIELD — Thousands of children would be protected from losing their health insurance under legislation passed out of the Senate Human Services Committee today by Majority Caucus Whip Iris Y. Martinez (D-Chicago).

The Covering All Kids Health Insurance Act is set to expire in July of this year, but Martinez’s legislation would extend it to 2019. Extending the act would prevent more than 40,000 children, regardless of their legal status, from losing their health insurance coverage.

“Providing health insurance to children in Illinois is not only the morally right thing to do, but it’s also good public policy,” said Martinez. “I don’t want to see children lose health insurance coverage, which could lead to long-term health problems that will be harmful and cost us more down the road.”