The Illinois General Assembly has its Fall Veto Session coming up October 24-26 and November 7-9. This session is nominally aimed at reconsidering bills that the Governor has vetoed from the spring session, but the legislature can consider new bills or finish work on bills that didn’t pass both houses in the spring. Illinois PTA will be advocating on two issues during the veto session—sunsetting the Invest in Kids voucher program and passing the Financial Literacy requirement in the Senate—and your voice can help support them both.

Bills that pass in the veto session are handled a little differently than in the spring session. Bills passed in the veto session require a super-majority (60%) if they are to take effect immediately. Bills that don’t take immediate effect only require a simple majority (50% + 1) to pass.

Sunsetting Invest in Kids

When the Invest in Kids voucher program passed, it was only supposed to exist for five years. Now, after six years, as approximately 900,000 Illinois public school students remain in schools below 75% adequate funding, it is time to allow the program to sunset as intended.

Invest in Kids diverts up to $75M in state funding for private school scholarships to fewer than 10,000 students, the vast majority of whom have never attended Illinois public schools. What was billed as a way for low-income students to move out of struggling public schools has in reality been a subsidy for families already able to afford to send their children to private schools.

Having the voucher program end as scheduled doesn’t actually require any action by the legislature. In fact, what it requires is inaction by the legislature: not passing a bill to extend the program or make it permanent. While there were no votes on bills extending the program in the spring, private schools and the scholarship-granting organizations (that take a cut of donations off the top before granting scholarships) are actively lobbying for the extension. That’s why your voice telling your legislators to let the voucher program end is important. You can go here to use our pre-written letter and e-mail it to your legislator.

Financial Literacy

Illinois PTA passed a resolution at the 2017 convention calling for legislation requiring the teaching of financial literacy in Illinois schools. That resolution was later also adopted at the National PTA Convention in 2019.

The resolution noted that many American students leave school with a limited understanding of how credit cards, FICO scores, compounding interest rates, and fiscal responsibility work. In fact, students in the United States ranked 27th out of 28 countries when asked about money management basics and how adequately they are prepared to manage their own money.

Since passing the resolution, Illinois PTA has successfully advocated for including financial literacy components in the Illinois state standards, and school districts should be including financial literacy in their curriculum. 

Now, HB 1375 would require all students to pass a one-semester, stand-alone course on personal finance in the 11th or 12th grade, starting with students who enter the 9th grade in the 2027-2028 school year (i.e., the course will be required in 2029 or later). The course must  to complete a stand-alone, one-semester or equivalent course covering personal finance, which shall include, but is not limited to, instruction covering behavioral economics; banking and bill payment; investing; types of credit; managing credit; including credit scores; paying for college; insurance; taxes; budgeting; consumer skills; retirement planning, including tax-advantaged retirement plans; home ownership and financing; and personal transportation, including car ownership and leasing. The course can be counted towards other graduation requirements.

HB1375 passed the House in the spring, but has not gotten through committee in the Senate yet. Follow this link to send our pre-written letter to your State Senator calling on them to co-sponsor the bill and bring it to the floor for a vote. You can add a personal story about how financial literacy (or the lack thereof) has affected your child or your family to the letter if you wish to do so.

Spring Session Scorecard

Illinois PTA has also assembled a legislator scorecard for some key bills from the spring session. You can go here to our Take Action page and then click on the “View Scorecard” link on the right side to see how your legislators voted on these bills:

  • SB2340: Adding longer stop arms to school buses.
  • HB0342: Implementing recommendations from the Whole Child Task Force on childhood trauma and education.
  • HB3428: Requires schools to have opioid antagonists (e.g., NARCAN or naloxone) available on campus.
  • HB1540: Includes the use of an electronic cigarette in the definition of “smoke” and “smoking,” banning the use of e-cigarettes in any location where smoking is banned in Illinois.
  • HB3140: Ends youth solitary confinement.
  • HB2471: Provides that the requirement that the State Board of Education establish the Healthy School Meals for All Program, subject to appropriation (Note: no appropriation in the budget at this time since the bill was signed after the budget passed.).
  • HB3425: Increases the requirements for school bullying policies and requires informing the parents or guardians of all students involved in alleged bullying incidents to be informed within 24 hours of the school’s administration being made aware of the incident.
  • HB3680: Requires that schools take into consideration any extra accommodation a student might need during an emergency (e.g., natural disaster or active shooter) when developing a student’s Section 504 plan or Individualized Education Program (IEP).
  • SB2243: Directs the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to create a State Literacy Plan.
  • SB1463: Bans imposing fees or fines (e.g., administrative or court costs) on minors in Juvenile Court or transferred to adult court.
  • SB1446: Schools may no longer prohibit students from wearing or accessorizing their graduation attire with their cultural, ethnic, or religious identity, or any other protected characteristic or category in the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Note that you can also access our calls to action on sunsetting Invest in Kids and requiring financial literacy education from the Take Action page (as well as current National PTA calls to action on federal legislation).