The University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, the several universities and colleges under the governance of the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities, and the several Regency Universities under the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents are hereby authorized to become participants in the Illinois Peace Corps Fellowship Program. Any such participating public institution of higher education may conduct and administer this program to augment the number of Illinois public school teachers by bringing the teaching skills of recently returned United States Peace Corps volunteers to those school districts, including the school districts situated within the City of Chicago and the City of East St. Louis or any other school district designated by the State Board of Educatio
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The University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, the several universities and colleges under the governance of the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities, and the several Regency Universities under the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents are hereby authorized to become participants in the Illinois Peace Corps Fellowship Program. Any such participating public institution of higher education may conduct and administer this program to augment the number of Illinois public school teachers by bringing the teaching skills of recently returned United States Peace Corps volunteers to those school districts, including the school districts situated within the City of Chicago and the City of East St. Louis or any other school district designated by the State Board of Education, which enter into cooperative agreements required for implementation of the program. In designating such school districts, the State Board of Education may consider districts that have a high proportion of drop-out students, a high percentage of minority students, a high proportion of low income families and high truancy rates. The program shall utilize former United States Peace Corps volunteers with two years of Peace Corps experience by placing them in the designated cooperating school districts as full time teachers or teacher aides. In return for making a two-year commitment to teaching and being placed in a full-time salaried teacher aide or certificated teaching position at a public school located in a designated cooperating school district, the former Peace Corps volunteer may be awarded a fellowship to the participating public institution of higher education to complete (in the case of teacher aides who are not yet certificated) the courses required for issuance of a teaching certificate under Article 21 of The School Code, or to pursue a master's degree program in education. The fellowships may consist of tuition waivers applicable toward enrollment at the participating public institution of higher education to complete required courses for teacher certification and to pursue a master's degree program in education; and the award of such tuition waivers may be supported by funds and grants made available to the participating university or universities through private or public sources. A participating university may also consider an authorization under which all fellowship recipients are allowed to pay in-state tuition rates while enrolled for credit in a master's degree program. An annual salary for the fellowship recipient to teach in a designated school district for a period of two years may be provided by the designated cooperating school district at which the fellowship recipient shall teach, and may be set at an amount equal to that paid to other teacher aides and certificated teachers in a comparable position.