Grow Your Own Teachers is grounded in an extraordinary collective effort of individuals, institutions, and organizations at all levels across the State of Illinois, from the nearly 400 candidates involved in the 12 current programs and the communities and community organizations that support them, to the administration and faculty of most of the State's public universities and many community colleges, superintendents and principals in active districts, and the legislature, the governor, and the state agencies that created the program and have moved rapidly to implement it.
For FY 2007, the legislature and governor approved $3,000,000 to implement Grow Your Own programs across the state. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) shortly thereafter issued an RFP for implementation grants, with a rolling deadline - projects were funded as soon as they were deemed eligible. The first projects were funded in early August, and by March 1, 2007, twelve projects were in operation. (See list of projects.)
In addition, the appropriation contained funding for addition planning grants, and ISBE issued the RFP for new planning grants this January; at least three projects were funded: a consortium in the area at the southeastern corner of Illinois often called Southernmost Illinois, another in Peoria, and a final one on the far north side of Chicago.
All three planning grant projects were funded as implementation projects for FY 2008. In addition, a number of other projects added candidates in anticipation of increased funding. But the program proposed increase to $4.5 million was dropped at the last minute in the budget stalemate between the Governor and the legislature; thus the program was funded for $3 million for the second straight year, while accomodating an increase in the candidate population of 40% - to 545 candidates. (See the profille of candidates here.)
New projects, and the recruitment of new candidates for existing projects, are required if the program is to move towards its goal of 1000 new teachers by 2016. (Here is a spreadsheet that shows how this growth can be achieved.) For FY 2009, the ISBE budget has GYO at $3.75 million, and the legislature passed in May 2008 a budget of $3.5 million, which awaits the Governor's approval.
The resources linked on this page will give you more information. If you want to be notified of ways to support the program, fill out this form.
