The General Assembly’s Spring Session wrapped up last week in a flurry of votes on budget legislation. Here’s where some of the bills and issues on our legislative agenda ended up.

The Illinois Legislature has (finally!) passed a budget for the 2024 fiscal year, the Senate late on Thursday, and the House very early this morning.

Thankfully, there was NO language to extend the Invest in Kids voucher program or remove its sunset clause in any budget bills.

Gov. Pritzker gave his budget address on Wednesday, and it was heartening to hear him call out attacks on school boards and libraries, including book bans and 'Don't Say Gay' laws, and say unequivocally that here in Illinois we want our children to learn the truth about our history as a country, “warts and all.”

The IL State Board of Ed held a series of budget hearings this month to get feedback from the public on requests for the state's FY2024 budget for public education. IL Families for Public Schools' Samay Gheewala spoke at the Oct 4th hearing, along with representatives of several other members of the PEER (Partnership for Equity and Education Rights) Illinois funding coalition. Read his remarks after the jump.

The Illinois State Board of Education held four meetings this fall around the state to gather input on its budget for fiscal year 2021. You can see the budget for FY2020 as enacted here. Below you can read the testimony we submitted about our concerns about the funds to be appropriated for assessments to two test vendors, Pearson and the College Board.

It’s nine school days into a Chicago teacher and staff strike, the second day of fall veto session in Springfield, and a great time to call your state senator and ask why Chicago families are still waiting for an elected, representative school board. (Find your state senator’s phone number here!)

As we all expected, the Plan Commission rubber-stamped the Lincoln Yards Plan on Thursday. Thanks, to parent Andrea Tolzmann for sitting through the four-hour meeting and testifying for RYHA and to the other parents who attended.  You can read her statement below.

Now is the time to call your alderman and tell them not to sign off on the two mega TIFs—Cortland Chicago River and Roosevelt/Clark. This isn’t just a North Side issue—taxes are raised on all of us from Rogers Park to Roseland pay for this development.

At this darkest time of year with a gloomy political climate to match, your legislators and governor will appreciate hearing from the people closest to their own heart/political fate—their constituents!