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CCSD66 Notes

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

School News


We continue to look to Springfield for leadership but find mostly disheartening entertainment. Several issues have come up in the past few days:

The excitement last Wednesday was the emergence of HB 4232 sponsored by Representative Lang (D-Skokie) that would reconstitute the Illinois State Board of Education and remove it from the direct control of Governor Blagojevich. Read about this at
www.ilga.gov. This is just the latest act in the political circus caused by the intense dislike and distrust of the current Governor.

Speaker Madigan has scheduled hearings around the state to hear testimony regarding the FY 09 state budget. Hearing in our area will be held in Aurora, Cicero, Joliet, South Holland and Oak Lawn. The education community has been invited to participate.

The additional appropriation for special education funding has still not been passed and a hearing is scheduled for March 11th in the House Appropriations Committee. Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Chicago) has moved to be sure that no changes are made to HB 4180, the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer bill are made this year. Since she controls the Senate Education Committee, this revision that would make the moment of “silence” optional, may never see the floor of the Senate.

State Auditor General, William Holland has issued a report showing that the unfunded liability for all five state pension systems has risen $1.5 billion last year. The “pension holiday” engineered by the Governor in 2006 requires that payments for FY 09 must be $3.2671 billion which is an increase of 226%. This fact will create enormous pressure on the FY 09 budget.

posted by Jay Tiede @ 1:47 PM