SAT math scores dropped nearly 15%, and reading scores dropped 9% from 2019 to 2021 among Illinois high school juniors. Low-income and minority students saw bigger losses.
Illinois school districts paid out $8.8 million in penalties over two school years to cover salary and sick days in excess of what is allowed by law. Those are dollars taken from classrooms, but only hint at the full taxpayer cost.
After the Illinois Supreme Court determined the state’s appeal of decisions regarding the governor’s school mask rules was moot, the governor declared schools can move to mask optional policies on Feb. 28.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to let him keep his authority to force Illinoisans to mask. But his effort to keep his COVID-19 mandate power is ignoring relevant data.
Judge Grischow’s Feb. 4 temporary restraining order isn’t the final result in the multiple cases challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s emergency powers. The ultimate solution is providing permanent certainty by limiting those emergency powers through legislation.
Shortly after a downstate judge threw Pritzker’s mask mandates into question, a bipartisan committee voted against reimposing another K-12 school mask mandate.
Amendment 1 would allow government unions to nullify hundreds of Illinois statutes – including laws aimed at protecting school children – simply by contradicting them in union contracts.