The Illinois General Assembly is winding up its work for this Spring session, and will try to adjourn for the summer by Friday of this week. That means that things will be moving very quickly this week. We will try to keep you posted on the issues that concern you and your family. (As a result, you may get multiple email alerts this week.)
One of those bills that we are working hard to see passed is a common sense bill that would create school choice for parents of grade school children in Chicago’s worst 49 schools. SB 2494 would allow families enrolled in one of these schools to receive a school voucher to cover qualified education expenses at a non-government school.
This bill has already passed the Illinois State Senate (33-20-3) and the Illinois House Executive Committee (10-1). We must get 60 votes to pass it on the House floor before it can be sent to Gov. Patrick Quinn for his signature to become law.
But as you can imagine, government bureaucrats, the Chicago Teacher’s Unions and the ACLU are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep their power over public schools despite what is in the best interest of the children! We can succeed if we have an outpouring of grassroots support. Our state lawmakers will have no choice but to pass the Illinois School Choice law.
We are making thousands of robo-calls to Illinois voters in an attempt to elicit a strong grassroots response. You can help by sending an email, fax or by making a phone call to your state representative today!
Take ACTION: Contact your state representative to ask him/her to support or even co-sponsor this common sense piece of legislation. You can always call IFI’s office for your elected official’s name and phone number – 708-781-9328.
Read more:
Controversial Chicago School Voucher Bill to Be Voted on This Week
by Tera Williams, FOX Chicago NewsChicago – Four Republicans, one Democrat. Party lines aside, they all prayed together Sunday over a controversial bill that goes up for a vote this week.
School choice is such an important issue to Suburban Republican Legislators, Ed Sullivan, Mike Connelly, Dan Cronin, Matt Murphy and Dan Duffy, they spent their Sunday on Chicago’s Southside at the House of Hope. That’s the church of Democratic Senator, Reverend James Meeks. Meeks calls the school voucher bill his brainchild.
I think it’s going to be the best thing for failing schools that we have thought of in a long time.” Meeks, who was originally against the voucher program said he changed his mind on the issue last year. “I was an advocate of more school funding but it seems as if that is slow in coming.”
Here’s how the proposed voucher program would work. Kindergarten through 8th grade students in Chicago’s most overcrowded schools and poorest neighborhoods could get up to $3,700.00 in vouchers to help pay for tuition at their parents choice of a participating private or parochial school. The bill would apply to about 22,000 students.
If passed, the program would start next year. There is bi-partisan support for the bill, but there are major concerns too.
27th District Senator Matt Murphy says, “People are concerned that it will siphon money away from the current school system. Again, if the school system is producing 6 out of 100 college grads, that’s not good enough.”
The ACLU and the Chicago Teacher’s Union are against the bill. The CTU calls it unconstitutional and warns the program could rack up $100 million in new state costs, cause schools to close and teachers to lose their jobs.
CPS is staying neutral on the bill. It already passed the Senate and the House Executive Committee. The full House will vote on it this week, most likely on Tuesday. It’s expected to be very close.
