In July, 2010 Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 226 requiring new and more stringent requirements for certification and endorsement of Illinois principals. This Illinois legislation followed other states in adopting widespread educational reform measures aimed at improving student achievement, connecting the responsibility for student achievement to the quality of building principals. Illinois institutions offering programs to certify or endorse Illinois principals were required to redesign programs to meet the requirements of the new law and to have new programs approved by the state. The bill charged the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) with drafting the rules by which the institutions would design their new programs. Newly approved principal preparation programs began accepting candidates in the fall of 2012. There is no argument that well-prepared principals are important to school leadership that results in higher student achievement. The principal preparation reform effort in Illinois that has resulted in more stringent admission requirements, partnerships between school districts and preparation programs, and rigorous internships was crafted and governed by rules intended to increase student achievement in Illinois schools. It is too soon to tell if the reform package will result in the intended outcomes. Over the next year, as the programs are implemented, there are other factors that may affect the outcome. Illinois' budget crisis, resulting in cuts to school funding, coupled with the state's teacher pension fund crisis and the threat of increasing the retirement age, may be turning the best and brightest teachers and aspiring principals away from education as a career choice or away from a career in education in Illinois. On a more positive note, recent legislation concerning teacher evaluation has tied teacher retention to teacher performance. The new laws require principals to be trained in teacher evaluation and require teacher evaluation plans to incorporate measures of student growth. These are tools which can certainly help leverage higher student achievement in the hands of highly effective principals.