Good news—we accomplished most of our goals in Springfield this week!

The class size goals bill (HB5481) sponsored by Rep Guzzardi passed in the House with 65 votes. It now goes to the Senate where Senator Aquino will be the sponsor. Thanks to everyone who called their reps. It’s now time to call your state senator and ask them to support this bill. You can read our one sheet and share our mobile version on social media.

We met with the sponsor of the LSC disempowerment bill (SB3183) that we were opposing along with other groups. He decided not to move this bill as there was too much opposition. It would have weakened LSC powers, and we received lots of negative feedback from LSC members in our network about it.

We also caught wind of a very bad amendment to last year’s Student Online Privacy Protection Act (SOPPA) that would have allowed software companies to use our kids’ data to sell targeted ads for higher ed institutions. We signed up to testify to oppose this amendment (HB1266 1) but the sponsor pulled the bill at the start of the hearing.  It would have certainly passed without our presence, and it’s a reminder how critical it is to have people on the ground in Springfield during session.

Note, we are trying to get a simple student data transparency bill passed (HB1295) that asks for the disclosure of the data being collected from students by ed tech software and the ability for parents to review and correct errors in that data. It’s gotten big opposition from ed tech groups, CPS, and others. (Read our one-pager about the bill here.) We had a meeting on the bill this week with the sponsor and opponents and will meet again in two weeks. We will keep pushing!

The bill that would improve facilities planning in CPS HB5721, also passed the House with 79 votes; as with the class size bill, it's time to call your state senator and ask them to sponsor it. Read our HB5721 fact sheet here. 

Join us for our Lobby Day in Springfield on 5/9 to work on these bills! Register here.