An important bill is moving to the House floor for a vote next week. This bill, HB768, would prevent the unelected state charter commission from approving charter schools that have been rejected by local school boards. Our existing schools are underfunded and in need of more resources, not fewer. Help stop this appointed commission from forcing charters on districts that don’t want or need them.
Now is a critical time for this bill. The IL State Board of Education applied for and received a federal grant to open 48 new charter schools without any approval from the state legislature—24 in Chicago and 24 outside of Chicago. Yet this grant comes with no operational dollars for the schools! If local school boards were to reject these new schools, the state commission currently has the power to approve them and divert funds from district coffers to pay for them.
Find your state rep here and make a call to ask them to support this bill by this coming Monday, April 24th.
Simple script: “Hi, I'm a constituent of Rep X. Please ask the Representative to vote YES on HB768, the charter commission bill.”
To learn more about why this bill is critical for the future of public education in IL, read our fact sheet. You can read the bill itself and follow what's happening with it on the IL General Assembly site.
Thanks for taking action on behalf of our public ed system!