ELGIN – To help Illinois diversify its workforce, the Illinois State Board of Education has awarded multiple Career and Technical Education (CTE) Education Career Pathways Grants to schools in the district State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) represents.

“These grants will help schools recruit and support future educators in the Career and Technical Education field by providing them with hands-on learning experiences, mentorships and more,” Castro said. “I am excited to see three schools the district I represent receive these grants so that they can prioritize funding for CTE development.”

The CTE Education Career Pathways Grants were awarded to 62 schools and vocational centers across the state, totaling almost $2 million. Among those schools are Dundee-Crown High School, Elgin High School and Larkin High School. Currently, only 18% of teachers identify as people of color. ISBE’s CTE Education Career Pathways Grants will help increase the diversity of the CTE teaching profession in Illinois.

Applicants to the CTE Education Pathways Grant program had to submit an implementation plan outlining how they will recruit underrepresented students into education careers. The grant also requires a partnership between grantees and institutions of higher education to ensure students can earn dual credit or other certifications while still in high school.

“CTE includes everything from health sciences to manufacturing, and so much in between,” Castro said. “To truly get the most out of students who choose this path, it is important we have skilled educators who can relate to their students.” 

For a full list of the grant recipients, visit the ISBE website.

ELGIN – State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) announced many communities in the district she represents are set to receive funding for transportation projects under the Rebuild Illinois capital program, including a grant for $1.2 million to the city of Elgin.

“It’s great to see such a strong investment in infrastructure from these grants,” Castro said. “The fact that these grants are going to local governments means these communities can redirect money that would otherwise be going toward things like fixing up roads and bridges to other parts of their budget.”

As the Illinois Latino Legislative Caucus prepares for the negotiations during budget season, they look forward to collaborating with Governor Pritzker to devise a series of strategies anchored in addressing the chronic fiscal and structural issues faced by our state in both spending plans and revenue generation. This year presents additional layers of constraints and opportunities as the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of systemic racism call on public servants to be more precise and deliberate with mitigating impact and reconciling past harm.

The Latino Caucus especially looks forward to continued partnership with the Governor's Office in the areas that greatly impact over two million Illinoisans who identify as Latinx, nearly 750,000 individuals who are immigrants and/or refugees, and an estimated 324,000 who are undocumented from Latin America-all who count on our ingenuity and commitment to protect basic elements of dignified life. We are prioritizing building on the following areas this budget cycle:

ELGIN – During a virtual press conference this morning, State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) announced the reintroduction of the Clean Energy Jobs Act and called for its passage.

“It is clear that the time for the Clean Energy Jobs Act is now,” Castro said. “Illinois must take state-level action to ensure the benefits of clean energy policy flow equitably to communities of color which are often left behind, support the development of rooftop solar and energy efficiency programs, hold all utilities accountable, deploy electric vehicles, and support a just transition for former fossil fuel communities.”

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) and several other members of the Illinois Senate were sworn in as the 102nd General Assembly began earlier today. Castro’s inauguration marks the start of her second term.

“I was very proud of all the good my colleagues and I were able to accomplish during my first term, and I am both honored and humbled that the people I represented trusted me enough to continue that work for another General Assembly,” Castro said. “There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, particularly to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I am eager to begin the conversations with my fellow lawmakers to make Illinois a better place to live.”

Castro was first elected to the Senate in Nov. 2016 for a four-year term. Her current term, along with the terms of entire 102nd General Assembly, expires Jan. 11, 2023.

SPRINGFIELD – In an effort to deliver social equity in cannabis licensing, State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) passed a package to follow-up on 2019’s legalization measure through the Senate this evening.

“During these impactful times, as the General Assembly works to pass the Black Caucus pillars to rid Illinois of systemic racism, it’s important to ensure social equity in other areas of society as well, and a good place to start is with cannabis dispensaries,” Castro said. “This legislation helps address some shortcomings of the original law that are preventing it from being as successful as it could be.”

Among the fixes, the measure:

• Creates the Tiered Applicant Lottery and Qualified Applicant Lottery, which determine the circumstances under which an entity might be awarded a dispensary license;
• Allows cannabis containers to be resealable;
• Allows people to begin working at a cannabis dispensary while their background check is being processed.
  • This allows the individual to begin working immediately. Should they fail the background check, they will be immediately terminated.

“The main goal here is to get more licenses out the door and into the hands of socially equitable applicants,” Castro said. “This plan adds more validity to Illinois’ already strong claim to being the industry leader in cannabis legalization that other states can seek to model their programs after.”

State Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood), the Chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, helped Castro move the measure through the Senate and stressed its importance in ensuring social equity and delivering the justice Black and Brown communities have been in need of for generations.

“Black and Brown communities suffered for decades under the War on Drugs. We saw our sons, brothers, and fathers go to prison and violence tear apart our communities,” Lightford said. “Now that we’ve legalized cannabis, we need to be make sure the benefits go to people in our communities to help us heal.”

The legislation is House Bill 122. Having passed the Senate, it must now return to the House for a vote of concurrence.

ELGIN – Families who use the Child Care Assistance Program will have their child care co-pays capped to $1.25 per month in the first two months of 2021. State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin), who has long been an advocate for working-class families, is hopeful the cap will relieve some of the burden from those who need it most.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many parents to decide between continuing to work and providing child care for their children,” Castro said. “This is a difficult choice that nobody should have to make, and my hope is that with a new cap on the co-pay under CCAP, they won’t have to.”

HAZEL CREST – During a virtual press conference Tuesday afternoon, State Rep. Will Davis (D-Hazel Crest) and several advocates called upon the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to enforce a law they helped author to expand opportunities for minority- and female-owned businesses in Illinois.

“The big businesses that are getting a special tax break from the state need to start providing opportunities to Illinois small businesses to work with them,” Davis said. “The Department of Commerce and Economic Development must enforce the law and make that happen.”

An expansion to the EDGE program was passed in 2017, and requires that any company seeking a tax credit must publicly file a report on their voluntary supplier diversity. State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin), Chair of the Senate Revenue Committee, shared her sentiments.

“When we passed the EDGE expansion, we did so under the assumption that if businesses did not comply with the requirement to disclose their supplier diversity, DCEO would step in and force them to,” Castro said. “That has not yet happened, so it is time for the Department to do its job and enforce the law it helped us write in order to ensure that opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses can continue to flourish.”

Also commenting on Davis’s call to action was State Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora), who said “during these difficult times minority-owned-small businesses need more opportunities and resources that would allow them to reach their full potential."

Jorge Perez, of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association, added "our members pay more state income taxes than these huge companies that get edge tax credits, and it's insulting these companies aren't following the law and filing supplier diversity reports."

Larry Bullock, Executive Director of the United States Minority Contractors Association, as well as representatives of the Federation of Women Contractors and Black Contractors Owners and Executives, applauded Davis’s efforts and echoed the calls for businesses and the Department of Commerce and Economic Development to follow the plain language of the law.