The Illinois School Choice Program

The IL school choice bill was killed off last week.
Jiminy.

• This is the "official" state gov web page for the bill: IL Bill SB2494 - The Illinois School Choice Program
• There's a good summary of the situation in this article: The End of a Good Run for Chicago School Choice Bill
• A good description of some of the debate: Chicago School Vouchers Shot Down by Illinois House

This McHenry County blog has some nice IL state politics stuff. This is kind of cool... the blog shows the actual electronic roll call for this bill. I snarfed their image of this below.

Franks Joins Majority in Defeating Voucher Bill for Poor Chicago Kids

Please note the tally in that McHenry blog story. The bill came up 12 votes short of what they needed to pass it. And the repub vote tally was 25 for, 23 against. So, repubs could have passed this bill, but did not.

The Bad
The dems are have their heels dug in against choice in schools. Well, what do they do with their kids?

• Dick Durbin, IL Senator, sends his kids to parochial school. Durbin is also working his ass off to kill the DC school choice program.
  
• Arnie Duncan, Sec of Education, moved to Virginia, rather than DC, to send his kids to good public schools, rather than the crappy ones in DC. Arnie is very popular these days with $100B in his pocket from the Obama stimulus bill.
• Barrack Obama, President, of course sends his kids to the most elite private school in DC. And yes, I believe President Obama received nearly 100% of the black vote. Their payback: higher unemployment, more welfare, less choice.
  

Hypocrites, one and all.

The Good
My IL state rep from Naperville Darlene Senger was a co-sponsor of the bill, so good for her!
I emailed her this pat on the fanny:

Rep. Senger,
I live in Naperville, and I wanted to commend you for co-sponsoring the school choice bill (SB2494) recently. It's a shame the bill was not passed, but I thank you for being on the side of choice and empowering parents, rather than government or unions. Maybe next time!

Good luck to you.
Thanks, Bill

Is there any more telling sign of old age than writing some pol. He he.

Wrap
Two final things:

1. Is this at least a chink in the armor? With Rev. Meeks spear-heading this effort, does this mean that African-Americans will at least start to question their supposed leaders (Jackson, Obama, etc)?
   
2. WTF are half the IL repubs doing by voting against this bill? We know the answer to that one. Dems vote to support the teacher's union. Repubs from the burbs and downstate won't lift a finger for inner-city kids because they don't live there.
   

Here's one repub who voted for the bill...

QOTD

"I had some reservations at first because it doesn’t help anybody in the suburbs"... but he voted for the bill on behalf of inner-city kids because it "could give them a better life."
- IL Rep J Durkin (r), source

Oh well. Blah blah blah.
Good job, Rep Senger.
And hope this is a step in the right direction.
choice... yow, bill