The General Assembly is back in Springfield this evening to start their last week of Spring Session. Scroll to the end for a complete to-do list of actions for reaching out to your legislators! But first, here are our updates on what’s needed and what’s still moving…

We've got lots of important updates below, including good news on protecting student privacy in CPS and recent wins on the voucher front, bad news on the millionaires tax, and our plans for May Day.

If you are on social media, you can get many of these updates as they break via our feeds: Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, Threads.

A millionaires tax could still appear on the ballot in November. The last day for the General Assembly to approve a resolution to put a ballot referendum to amend the Constitution is May 3rd. This is under discussion among House members today because the resolution is starting on the House side.

No matter their zip code, their religion, or their race, what most Illinois families want is a well-resourced public school right where they live and play, a school where every child is welcome and has the freedom to learn and grow. As an advocacy organization, we support bills that get us closer to that vision, and oppose bills that push that vision even further out of reach. 

Today a coalition of organizations delivered a letter to Governor Pritzker calling on him to act on his values and commit to opting Illinois out of a new federal school voucher program championed by the Trump administration. Full press release below.

It's a new year on the calendar, but the fights to defend and improve our public schools continue. Read on for the latest news on the looming threat of the new federal voucher program and a potentially positive development for state school funding in Illinois...and action steps to take on both these issues.

Congress passed a massive and harmful bill in early July that includes sweeping cuts to essential programs that millions of people rely on every day. From healthcare and food assistance to housing, and clean energy investments, the harm done by this law will be felt in communities across the country—including in our public schools. To help break it all down, Citizen Action Illinois is holding a virtual briefing this coming Monday, Aug 11th at 11am with leading experts from the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, Illinois Environmental Council, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, and Illinois Families for Public Schools.

Despite months of organizing and a concerted last-ditch effort by Democratic Senators to stop it, a federal voucher program ended up in the final version of the reconciliation bill that narrowly passed both chambers earlier this month.

On Tuesday, employees at the US Department of Education were told not to come into work the next day, and shortly thereafter layoffs that will bring the total employees to half of what there were in January were announced.

Chalkbeat - U.S. Department of Education to lay off one-third of staff

Although shutting down the Department altogether would require a vote from Congress, slashing the staff will achieve a similar result. Already last month, hundreds of millions in research grants funded by USED were cut and thousands of hearings on discrimination in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) were cancelled as well.

The legality of all of these moves is under dispute, but the negative impact is not.

It’s been a long first week of presidential executive orders targeting the public good and our neighbors, our families, ourselves. Monday’s late night illegal federal spending freeze​ was halted by a court challenge on Tuesday. For now the memo instigating that freeze has been rescinded​ (although not the orders it was meant to implement) due to widespread public outrage and pushback.