PSAT for 3-6-12: Crunch time for Senate bill 3239
Tomorrow’s Illinois Senate Education Committee hearing will determine whether the Chicago school closing moratorium bill goes ahead or not.
The hearing will take place in Springfield tomorrow, Tuesday, March 6, at 4 pm in Capitol Hearing Room 409.
Included on the docket as well is SB 3362 which seeks to reduce class size in Chicago schools. Lowering class size is one of four strategies identified by the Institute for Educational Sciences as a proven method for improving achievement.
Please call the committee members today or tomorrow morning (numbers below) to urge their support for these critical bills, and call your own local state senator to ask him/her to sign as a co-sponsor to show support.
Current Senate sponsors of SB 3239 are:
Iris Y. Martinez – Jacqueline Y. Collins – Annazette R. Collins – Mattie Hunter – William Delgado, Kimberly A. Lightford and Emil Jones, III
* CPS has failed to listen to the community concerns about school closings.
* CPS has refused to consider any of the community-based improvement plans.
* CPS continues to impose chaotic, hurried privatized remakes of public schools which have failed to produce the promised “dramatically better” schools.
* CPS refuses to look at better, less disruptive alternatives for improving schools, or acknowledge the strong local research showing that LCS-run school improvement programs are far more successful than turnarounds.
* Meanwhile, CPS has acknowledged that it deliberately withholds needed resources from struggling schools in favor of turnarounds and charters.
Mayor Emanuel, CPS CEO Brizard, and CPS Board of Education members claim that only they have the best interests of children in mind, but WHO REALLY BENEFITS from the CPS policy of privatization and community upheaval? It’[s the 1% of Chicago, not the children.
We ask our elected representatives to represent us - the parents, teachers, and community of the students in the Chicago Public School, the ones who vote for you, not the powerful folks behind the push to destroy public education in the US.
Education Committee members:
Chairperson : James T. Meeks D 708) 862-1515 (217) 782-8066
Vice-Chairperson : Kimberly A. Lightford D 708) 343-7444 (217) 782-8505
Member: Annazette R. Collins D (312) 733-5009 (217) 782-6252
Member: Susan Garrett D (847) 433-2002 (217) 782-3650
Member: Iris Y. Martinez D (773) 463-0720 (217) 782-8191
Member: John G. Mulroe D (773) 763-3810 (217) 782-1035
Minority Spokesperson : David S. Luechtefeld R (618) 243-9014 (217) 782-8137
Member: Christine J. Johnson R 815) 895-6318 (217) 782-1977
Member: Kyle McCarter R (618) 654-4068 (217) 782-5755
Member: Suzi Schmidt R (224) 372-7465 (217) 782-7353239