By GARY FORBY

Illinois State Senate

This past week marked the beginning of a new spring session for the members of the General Assembly.

My colleagues in the Senate and I exchanged ideas about our legislative priorities for this year and talked about the issues facing our districts.

Although it was short, it was a productive two days at the capitol. During this time, some notable pieces of legislation passed the Senate that focused on safety and education.

I was also pleased to find out encouraging news that an ethanol facility in our district would be the recipient of some funding assistance.

I announced last week that Ag Energy Resources Inc. in Benton was awarded a sizeable amount of funding assistance from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. This money will be used to promote job growth and maintain employment at the facility.

Job creation is the biggest issue facing our district right now, and this funding is extremely beneficial for both our local community and our state.

The re-opening of the facility will create roughly 30 immediate jobs in the coming weeks and has the potential to create many more down the road. The jobs created will ultimately result in new revenue to be spent locally, resulting in future job creation.

I believe our state must invest in creating jobs in order to get back on track financially, and this is certainly a step in the right direction.

Education is also an important issue facing our state, and last week we made efforts in improving our state school systems. Two measures passed in the Senate intended to help our state compete for federal education funding through the Race to the Top Program.

The reforms will allow our state to better compete, because in order to be eligible for the program, Illinois must advance reforms targeted at measuring student growth, informing teachers how to improve instruction, effectively hiring teachers and principals, and improving low-achieving scores.

President Obama announced this program last year that allowed states to compete for approximately $4.35 billion in competitive grants to support education reform and innovation in classrooms. Illinois is in the running to secure a maximum of about $500 million if chosen for the funding.

Another measure that was sent to the governor is Senate Bill 1013. The measure reforms the Meritorious Good Time program that was originally intended to allow low-risk inmates to be released early based on good behavior. Historically, if the inmate earned enough good-behavior credit, they could be granted leave.

Prisoners were originally required to serve at least 60 days; however, over the last few months, the Department of Corrections accelerated this program to "MGT-Push" and credited inmates with good behavior after only serving a few days in prison.

The new proposal formally establishes that inmates must serve a minimum of 60 days of their sentence before they can qualify for good-conduct credit.

There are other restrictions in the bill as well that will ensure our district remains safe and protects the livelihood of the citizens of Southern Illinois.

• Gary Forby is an Illinois state senator in the 59th District, which includes part of Hamilton County.