Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Elgin Community College’ Category

6420bcd3ee030.image

A pile of challenged books appear at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. Attempted book bannings and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, according to a new report from the American Library Association. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Officials from Illinois’ major political parties are making clear one issue they’ll be taking sides on heading into the 2024 election cycle.

Illinois still has a primary to get through in March. But, heading into November next year, things are expected to heat up. One issue Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias put in the national spotlight during testimony to a U.S. Senate committee this week was that of access to controversial books.

“Tragically, our libraries have become the thunder domes of controversy and strife across our nation, the likes of which we’ve never seen before,” Giannoulias said.

The Democratic statewide official promoted the Illinois measure he spearheaded to withhold taxpayer-funded grants to public and school libraries that he said “ban books.”

“This right to read legislation will help remove the pressure that librarians have tragically had to endure over the last couple of years,” he said.

6500bec19f29f.image

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias during a U.S. Senate committee hearing

Giannoulias was read obscene materials* some say should be allowed in school, which he acknowledged was offensive.

Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy said he was baffled by the Democrat’s position.

Read more here.

*Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana did not hold back during today’s Senate Judiciary Committee in which there was a hearing on so-called ‘book bans.’

Read Full Post »

GQ

The books being made available to children in public schools and libraries was the topic of a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, with an Illinois law thrust into the spotlight.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias testified before the committee to explain the legislation. Beginning next year, Illinois will withhold tax dollars from public libraries that limit what types of books are available.

“This legislation is important because both the concept and practice of banning books contradicts the very essence of what our country stands for and what our democracy was founded on,” Giannoulias said.

Republicans have taken issue with the definition of book bans adopted by Pen America, which said books being pulled off the shelves in schools for review constitutes a ban.

“This is not a ban. This is about schools deciding what’s appropriate for school children, and sexually explicit and obscene, pornographic material isn’t appropriate,” U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said.

The hearing took a racy turn when U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, read passages from a couple books, including a profane paragraph from “Gender Queer,” which has appeared on Pen America’s banned book list.

“No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an elementary school library or in the children’s section of the library,” said committee chair U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. “That is a distraction from the real challenge.”

Read more and view the video here.

Read Full Post »

ALA-logo-american-library-association

Some Illinois Republicans want public libraries in the state to withdraw from the American Library Association.

Public libraries have been a hotly debated topic in recent months. Illinois became the first state to essentially ban book bans after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law limiting taxpayer-funded grants to libraries that don’t follow the ALA’s policies on prohibited materials.

“We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of white nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told,” Pritzker said. “Not in Illinois.”

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, said the governor’s comment is a false narrative of the left because there was never any talk of banning books.

“Nobody is banning anything,” Wilhour told The Center Square. “I have yet to see one of these books that is not still available to be sold and purchased. That’s a book ban. This isn’t a book ban, this is about age appropriate.”

School districts around the country have debated the age appropriateness of books such as “Gender Queer,” which includes images of the main character’s legs covered with blood; blood on the main character’s underwear from an occurrence of menstruation; a blood-covered tampon; a toy vibrator that led to “my first orgasm” as well as two illustrations of young people engaged in oral sex.

Wilhour is part of the Illinois Freedom Caucus, which is calling on public libraries in the state to withdraw from the Chicago-based ALA after their new president proclaimed herself to be a Marxist.

The Freedom Caucus said in April 2022, Emily Drabinski wrote in a Twitter post “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.”

Read more here.

Related:The fine print of Illinois’ ban on book bans,” “Pritzker signs law stripping libraries that ban books from state funding,” “Bill blocking libraries from state funding if they ban books clears General Assembly

Read Full Post »

Empty Chambers Springfield

Unions are major political players in Illinois, contributing almost $133 million to lawmakers and then advocating for their preferred policies at the Statehouse.

About one-third of that comes from teachers unions, which frequently take stances that run counter to what parents in the state may want for their children. Teachers unions oppose donor scholarships for low-income children to attend the schools of their choice and lobby against funding for resource officers to keep kids safe in school.

Since 2010, teachers unions have contributed more than $45 million to current lawmakers’ political committees, according to records with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Of the Illinois General Assembly’s 177 members, 142 of them – more than 4 out of every 5 – have received money from teachers unions.

The Chicago Teachers Union alone has funneled nearly $3 million to current lawmakers.

Teachers unions then lobby those lawmakers on their chosen policies and political agendas. For example, CTU logged support or opposition over 1,360 times on at least 480 bills between 2011-2022, according to data obtained by the Illinois Policy Institute from the Illinois General Assembly.

Political contributions and lobbying give teachers unions a one-two political punch that gives them a big advantage over parents and other residents in the state, who may have different ideas on what’s best for kids.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Harvard

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in a sharp setback to affirmative action policies often used to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority groups on campuses.

The justices ruled in favor of a group called Students for Fair Admissions, founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, in its appeal of lower court rulings upholding programs used at the two prestigious schools to foster a diverse student population.

The decision, powered by the court’s conservative justices with the liberal justices in dissent, was 6-3 against the University of North Carolina and 6-2 against Harvard. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate in the Harvard case.

In major rulings last year also spearheaded by the conservatives justices, the court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide and widened gun rights in a pair of landmark rulings.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority said, “Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” referring to the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law.

Roberts said that students “must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

“At the same time,” Roberts said, “as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

More here.

Read Full Post »

I love reading

You’d almost think Illinois singlehandedly defeated the Nazi Axis based on the comments made by progressive politicians and media about the state’s new ban on book bans. Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law this month. For example:

  • Pritzker said, “Regimes ban books, not democracies,” adding that Illinois refuses “to let a vitriolic strain of white nationalism” determine “whose stories get told.”
  • The Daily Kos began its column with this quote from a German poet, about what it called a “monumental bill”: “Those who burn books will in the end burn people.”
  • The New York Times said the signing of Illinois’ new law “may have opened a new front,” quoting a library association person saying, “there was a huge wave of conversation and dialogue about how important it is that we see governors and that we see lawmakers engaged in this conversation.”

In truth, the book ban “ban” is bunk. It’s absurdly written and impossibly vague. It permits delegation of lawmaking to an unelected national association, stripping local control from libraries. It conflates questions of age appropriateness with censorship. It’s a transparent attempt by the leaders of the cancel culture wrap themselves in the flag of free speech.

Under Illinois new law, public libraries will forfeit state grants unless they either (a) adopt the American Library Association’s library bill of rights or, (b) develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials within the library or library system.

Let’s first consider what the second option above means, because it’s so empty. A library would be in compliance, if it used that option, if it merely has a written statement “prohibiting the practice of banning books.” What on earth does that mean? Maybe a statement saying no banning at all allowed? Nobody would agree with that. Any “statement” to make sense would have to get into the specifics of what can be banned and why, but the new law says nothing about what those specifics should be.

Read on here.

Related: “The fine print of Illinois’ ban on book bans,”   “Pritzker signs law stripping libraries that ban books from state funding,” “Bill blocking libraries from state funding if they ban books clears General Assembly

Read Full Post »

Illinois-graduates-most-students-even-though-a-vast-majority-arent-reading-or-math-proficient

Thirty-two state lawmakers have stepped up their efforts to save the Invest in Kids Act, Illinois’ tax credit scholarship for more than 9,000 students.

The House members, all Republicans, have signed a letter indicating their support for the program, which, as we’ve reported, is in danger of being killed by anti-school-choice lawmakers. Lawmakers will decide this month whether or not to extend the program as part of the budget negotiation process.

Those who’ve signed the letter support the hopes and dreams of the scholarship students from low-income, working-class families. For details of the program, see Empower Illinois’ 2022 Impact Report.

Those who refuse to show their support are effectively giving in to the teachers unions, which strongly oppose Invest in Kids and are actively pushing to end the program (see IEA’s stop vouchers in Illinois).

That refusal includes House Democrats who were asked to sign the letter but wouldn’t. Given Democrats’ lockstep support of the teachers unions, it’s unlikely any would sign anyway.

The refusal also includes eight Republican House lawmakers who have not signed: House GOP leader Tony McCombie, as well as Jeff Keicher, Dave Severin, Charles Meier, Norine Hammond, Wayne Rosenthal, Michael Marron and Amy Elik. (Wirepoints is unaware of any similar letter making the rounds in the Senate.)

These unsupportive legislators should be called out because school choice should be a slam dunk for both Republicans and Democrats. As the WSJ reported Tuesday, “The program is popular with voters. In May 2021, an ARW Strategies poll showed 61% of Illinois voters approved the tax-credit program, including 67% of state Democrats. 71% of black voters and 81% of Hispanics statewide approved of the plan.”

Not to mention, states around the country like Indiana and Iowa are greatly expanding their school choice programs and making them universal.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

641b56c6d32c9.image

The vote tally of House Bill 2789 that passed the House Wednesday.

Libraries in Illinois, including at K-12 schools, could see their funding cut if there are efforts to restrict books under a bill that passed the House Wednesday.

House Bill 2789 would limit federal pass-through tax dollars through the Illinois Secretary of State’s office for libraries that remove or restrict certain books.

State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Downers Grove, used a recent controversy in her district around a book titled “Gender Queer” that she said “the Proud Boys hate group” and “radical fringe” parents protested. The book has sexually explicit themes some parents found objectionable.

“All too often, we see the books targeted by these hate groups and radical fringe parents are books having to deal with LGBTQ+ identities or Black and brown authors,” Stava-Murray said.

State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, said the measure “strong arms” local communities and is “a complete assault” on local control.

“And for the state to tell a local library board ‘listen to the professionals, follow the professionals,’ I don’t understand why we have local elections anymore if a bill like this passes,” McLaughlin said.

Local school board and library board elections across the state are set for April 4.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Switzerland Davos Forum

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is making free college a priority in his second term. Tuition is driven up by pension costs, which Pritzker routinely ignores.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is making affordable college a priority in his second term, but so far he’s ignored the surest way to ensure it can happen: pension reform.

“It’s also our obligation to make college more affordable by removing financial barriers. That’s why we need to bring down the cost of higher education. Since I took office, we’ve increased scholarships by more than 50%. Now let’s focus on making tuition free for every working-class family,” Pritzker said.

The biggest barrier to affordable college in Illinois is pensions. Rising pension costs push up Illinois tuition, forcing students to pay the difference.

Pension Costs Education

It’s why Illinois has the fourth-highest in-state tuition and fees for public universities in the nation at $14,455 a year. Pritzker boasts increased scholarships, but scholarships are like a coupon: they help people but do nothing to change the price tag.

Other big states keep their universities affordable. Public colleges in California, New York, Texas and Florida all cost under $9,000 a year for residents.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

IEA-logo

Press Release:

SPRINGFIELD – Today, the unions representing teachers and support staff in 52 school districts across Illinois will file a motion to intervene in a Sangamon County lawsuit in an effort to protect the safety of the workplaces and the health and lives of students and employees by keeping the governor’s student mask mandate in place.

In October, attorney Tom DeVore filed a lawsuit against 145 school districts across the state on behalf of parents and their children at a price of $5,000 per district, plus filing fees. Those cases have all been consolidated into one in Sangamon County in front of Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow.

The suit asks that the students not be required to wear a mask or be excluded from campus, and that students not be excluded from campus if they were “close contacts” with a COVID positive person, without the local health department weighing in on each individual case.

The court filings today were made on behalf of 75 IEA-affiliated locals, which represent more than 29,000 members of the Illinois Education Association who serve more than 214,000 students. Each of those locals made the independent decision to intervene in the lawsuit.

“Almost all of our members are vaccinated or complying with the vaccinate-or-test order. We are all wearing masks. We want students to wear their masks and stay home if they were close contacts of someone with COVID. We believe in keeping staff, students, all of the families of our staff and students and all of our communities safe,” said Andrew Frey, president of the Triad Education Association. “Things were looking good for a while, but here we are again. This is a worldwide pandemic. We are not immune in Illinois just because we want to turn our heads. So, we won’t. And, we’ll work to keep our schools safe.”

A status hearing is set in the case for next week. Should the judge grant the IEA locals’ motion, they would be able to take part in that hearing and in court proceedings going forward.

“We have been saying all along that it is our goal to keep students and staff in buildings as long as it is safe,” said Kathi Griffin, president of the IEA. “Our locals are respectfully asking the court to respect the educators’ wishes who have asked their local to intervene on their behalf, to ensure that we can continue in-person instruction in a safe and healthy environment. We believe the governor has worked hard to provide a safe educational environment for students and that districts have been following his executive orders because they are guided by science and are focused on keeping our students and staff safe. That’s the best we can ask under these circumstances.”

As of Dec. 9, nearly 1.9 million Illinoisans have tested positive for COVID-19, of which nearly 400,000 are under the age of 20. There have been 30,000 confirmed or probable COVID deaths. At least four Illinois public school employees died of COVID during the 2019-20 school year, at least eight in the 2020-21 school and at least one this school year. Currently, there are 163 active “youth outbreaks” in the state. Between June and August of this year, the Delta variant resulted in a five-fold increase of child hospitalizations, and between July 3 and Oct. 30, the case rate for those under age 20 increase from 17 per 100,000 to 142 per 100,000.

As of Dec. 9, all 102 counties in Illinois are coded red for high transmission on the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Community Transmission Map – the most critical rating.

###

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

%d bloggers like this: