SPRINGFIELD — Lawmakers approved measures limiting AI instruction at community colleges, requiring seat belts on school buses, and mandating food handlers receive certain allergen training among dozens of bills Wednesday.
The Illinois Senate gave its approval to a bill that would prohibit community colleges from using artificial intelligence programs instead of human instructors to teach their classes.
House Bill 1859 would not entirely ban the use of AI as an instructional tool. Faculty members would still be allowed to use those platforms to “augment course instruction.” But it would prohibit colleges from using AI instead of human faculty members as the “sole source of instruction for students.”
The measure comes at a time when colleges and universities across the country have been struggling with the ethical issues raised by such platforms as ChatGPT and Copilot. Many schools have adopted policies prohibiting students from using those platforms to write papers or complete assignments while at the same time allowing their instructors to use them as teaching aids.
The New York Times recently reported a student at Northeastern University, in Boston, filed a complaint with the school and sought a refund for tuition she had paid for one class after discovering her professor had used ChatGPT to produce the lecture notes that were used in a business class.
The bill passed the Senate 46-12 with several Republicans objecting. Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said she was concerned the bill goes too far in limiting the options of local community college boards that want to offer classes in subjects where human instructors are hard to find.
“I’m concerned that this bill will take local control away from the community college to be able to make decisions that are in the best interest of their students,” she said.
But Sen. Mike Porfirio, D-Lyons Township, the bill’s chief Senate sponsor, said the aim was to protect the interests of both students and human instructors.
“I think if anything we’re guaranteeing that our students receive proper instruction and also that we acknowledge the role that instructors, faculty, staff play in students’ lives,” he said.
The bill now returns to the House, which must concur on an amendment made in the Senate before it can be sent to Gov. JB Pritzker for his consideration.
Food allergen training for food handlers
A bill mandating food handlers undergo educational training on celiac disease and other food allergies passed the House unanimously on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 1288 was sponsored by Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, to provide food handlers with more knowledge about the disease in hopes that they’ll take allergies and cross-contamination issues more seriously. The training will include information such as the symptoms of celiac disease and ways to prevent cross-contamination.
The bill also mandates training on allergies related to milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, sesame and food ingredients that contain protein derived from those allergens.
Turner said the issue of cross-contamination was brought to her attention when she visited a restaurant with a friend who has celiac disease, an autoimmune disease linked to gluten. When they ordered their meal, Turner’s friend told their server she was gluten free and ordered a salad without croutons. Although the prepared salad didn’t have croutons on it when her friend consumed it, Turner said her friend had symptoms of gluten ingestion quickly after eating the salad.
Turner said she’s heard this issue before and began to wonder whether the cooks at some restaurants simply pick croutons off salads. After that, she said she wondered about how many food handlers take cross-contamination seriously.
“It was really an easy bill to pass, because so many people now have some friends, neighbors and relatives that have celiac and are recognizing that and they just want to make sure that everybody is going to be healthy when they go out to eat,” Turner said following the bill’s passage. “It just might encourage more people to recognize that.”
School buses requiring seat belts
Another bill that cleared the General Assembly would require all school buses in K-12 schools to have seat belts on them.
According to Senate Bill 191, any school buses made after 2031 would be required to have seat belts that go over the lap and shoulders of all passengers.
The bill doesn’t require school district staff, a contractor or any entity in charge of school buses to make sure students are wearing seat belts; it would just require new buses to have them.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lists on its website that buses are designed so “children are protected from crashes by strong, closely spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs.” Short school buses already require seat belts because they are closer in weight to normal cars.
Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, said Wednesday on the House floor that he presumes school districts will have their own policies for how to handle seat-belt usage on buses.
“This might sound interesting, it’s really not that notable in the sense that school buses are already pretty safe, and all new manufactured school buses already are really focusing on having a three-point seat belt,” Morgan said.
Morgan said there shouldn’t be an across-the-board price increase of buses, although Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, cited an estimated $7,000 to $18,000 increase in bus prices given by the Illinois School Transportation Association.
The bill passed with a vote of 83-27 and awaits the governor’s signature.
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