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Quinn puts brakes on school mandates

BY KEVIN LEE AND BILL MCMORRIS
ILLINOIS STATEHOUSE NEWS

CHICAGO - It looks like educators won't have to worry about lawmakers handing down new subjects to teach for the upcoming school year.

Gov. Pat Quinn has signed a new law that holds lawmakers from passing any new instructional mandates.

Instructional mandates require school districts to integrate certain topics into their curriculums. The mandates can call for new standards in subjects ranging from history and language to driver's education and physical health.

The new law also requires the creation of a task force that will look into the mandates and recommend courses of action for lawmakers and the governor. The task force would have to forward their findings by next July.

The moratorium on the mandates would last until a year after the new task force releases a report on their findings.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Highwood, said the state needed to make a focused analysis on the mandates and their effectiveness.

"We really want to get our arms around how many mandates there are, how much they cost and how they are implemented," she said.

Unfunded mandates, said Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, leave cash-strapped schools seeking more money from their local governments in order to compensate.

Eddy, a school superintendent, has sponsored a legislative proposal, HB4711, that would allow individual school districts to waive any new unfunded mandates passed by lawmakers. The governor's office is considering the proposal.