Capitol Buzz…

The deed is done.

On Wednesday, the Governor signed into law SB 1946 (Public Act 96-0889), the most draconian pension revision bill in the country. While the bill’s passage was applauded by the Governor and the members of the General Assembly as an historic reform, the reality is that the bill will have a detrimental impact on education for years to come.

Most significantly, the bill eliminated the 3 percent annually-compounded cost-of-living rate increase and replaces it with a simple interest raise of half of the consumer price index or 3 percent, whichever is lower.  What public employees should find troubling about this is that a similar bill, which applies to General Assembly members and judges, kept the 3 percent compounded cost of living increase. The bill has an effective date of Jan. 1 and will apply to anyone hired after that date.  So much for parity.

Other key provisions in the bill cap pensionable salary at $106,800 and raise the retirement age for full benefits to 67 with 10 years of service. How would you like to be a recruiter trying to sell that package to an education major graduate?

For some, that doesn’t seem like quite enough to stifle jobs and economic development. Some are calling for changes that would impact current members. We have already begun an analysis of a proposal and have found substantial support for our belief that any proposal that would seek to diminish the benefits of current members would face a stiff constitutional challenge.

Pension trailer bill

After rushing pension changes for our future members through the legislature, lawmakers are now deliberating whether or not to make “technical” changes to SB 1946, the legislation just signed by the Governor on Wednesday.  A fact sheet of the law can be found here. IEA is aware of many of the discussions going on within the legislature around the trailer bill and is under the belief that HB 6368 (Cullerton-D, Chicago) will be the bill that carries these “technical” changes.  The term “technical” means that currently, there does not seem to be a will to change any of the major benefit reductions recently legislated but that there is an understanding by those that supported these pension cuts that they passed flawed legislation that needs to be modified for it to be implemented.

SOS Rally Day

SOS Rally Day is April 21.  IEA has partnered with several other organizations and rally day is proving to be a fairly large event. We’re encouraging everyone to wear pink to the rally in support of those who have been RIF’d.  Click here for a list of things to keep in mind as you’re planning your trip:

The tentative schedule of events for the day, which is subject to change:

9 to 11 a.m.                Buses arrive at IEA HQ-visit legislators (time permitting)

11 to 11:30 a.m.            Walk to rally staging point at 2nd and Capitol

11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.    SOS rally speakers at 2nd and Capitol

12:15 p.m.                  Beginning of march

1 p.m.                      Visit legislators (time permitting)

(Lunch will be available at noon and served throughout the day. Members may eat at their leisure.)

Access to the Capitol will be limited at some point during the day due to the large number of people attending the SOS Rally Day.

Vouchers

SB 2494 (Meeks, D-Calumet City) creates the Illinois School Choice Program. The proposal would allow parents to obtain public vouchers to cover the cost of private schooling. Under SB 2494, a pilot program will be created in Chicago that would allow children from the worst-performing schools to use the vouchers.

The bill has been assigned to the House Executive Committee and will be heard on Thursday. We will testify in opposition to the bill citing several national studies that have evaluated similar voucher programs. The findings of those studies conclude that 1) there was no statistical difference in test scores in general between students who were offered the voucher and those who were not; 2) while the program had an overall positive impact on parents, the students did not report a positive impact on satisfaction or safety; and 3) even after being in the program for two years, the results were still the same.

Four-day school week

HB 4886 (Black, R-Danville) allows a school district, by resolution of its board, to operate on a four-day school week plan approved by the Illinois State Board of Education. The plan provides that the district must ensure a minimum of 880 hours of student contact in addition to required institute days (instead of requiring a minimum term of 185 days). This bill is in response to a superintendent from Jamaica, Ill., a rural school district that is interested in curbing the of rising transportation and fuel costs while servicing large geographic districts. This bill is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Education Committee this week. The IEA opposes this bill.

Illinois State Board of Education Blue Ribbon Committee on Mandates

The Blue Ribbon Committee on Mandates was established through HJR 74 with the charge to make recommendations to the General Assembly on unnecessary and costly mandates in the School Code and the Administrative Code. The committee convened for the first time this Tuesday and Daryl Morrison, Education Policy and Agency Relations Director attended the meeting as the IEA’s representative on the committee.  The state board received 104 emails with more than 500 suggestions for changes to the law or regulations that impose mandates for school districts. The committee started to review the tabulations and posted the “Elimination of Mandates: Summary of Suggestions” report on its website.  Below are excerpts from the document:

• Health/life safety issues: 122 suggestions, of which 66 addressed laws regarding environmental issues and 43 addressed the requirements to have automated external defibrillators at indoor and outdoor athletic facilities.
• Curriculum: 80 suggestions, with 30 citing the requirement that physical education classes be provided daily. The remaining suggestions addressed instructional mandates generally or made specific references to units of instruction required under laws enacted in the last 10 years.
• Transportation: 59 suggestions, most of which addressed the requirement to have a two-way radio system in each bus (22) and for the use of biofuels (19).
• Employee issues: 49 suggestions. Twelve addressed requirements for staff training (in-service sessions, teacher institutes), while 10 cited teacher and principal mentoring programs and six pertained to criminal background checks.
• Special education: 48 suggestions. Among these suggestions, 17 were general comments, and 27 addressed the administrative rules regarding the proportion of special education students in a general education classroom (14) and response to intervention requirements (13).
• Driver education: 33 suggestions with all but two citing the requirements for the provision of behind-the-wheel instruction, which as of January 1, 2008, cannot be provided by methods other than on-the-road practice driving.

The committee did not have time to go through all of the suggested categories. The next Blue Ribbon Committee on Mandates will be held on April 27.  For more information regarding the Blue Ribbon Committee on Mandates, please visit the Illinois State Board of Education website.

What’s Next?

The General Assembly will be in session from Tuesday, April 20-Friday, April 23 of next week.  The committee deadline for substantive bills to pass out of committee is Friday, April 23 in both the House and the Senate.