Posted April 29, 1999

Legislative deadline
extended in House

by Diane Ross

See also:

No compromise in sight, legislators annoyed
(posted April 16)

Point-counterpoint:
A chart on key issues
(posted April 1)

Legislation at last:
Text of the board's
March 30 proposal
(posted April 22)

CATALYST news updates: Board drops some controversial proposals
(posted April 5)

Board, LSC advocates square off over proposed bill
(posted March 31)

Summaries and Propaganda:
School Board's summary of their legislative proposal
(created April 1)

An analysis of the proposed bill from the reform group Designs for Change
(created March 22)

For more background:

See our latest (April 1999) articles on principal selection.

Compare a School Board summary of its original legislative proposal
(March 16)

Trace the history of local control of principal selection through our Reform Act Summary

See our Topic Index for links to major CATALYST articles on Local School Councils, the Illinois General Assembly, Principals, and the School Reform Act

Read articles from our March issue:
LSC advocates lobby for Chapter 1 boost
and
10,000 teachers top Ryan's education budget

Find the complete legislative report on
Clemente High and
state Chapter 1, posted to our site.

Link to a Q&A with CPS CEO Paul Vallas, from the March 1999 issue of Illinois Issues magazine

Review state education laws passed in 1997 and 1998 in a summary commissioned by the Illinois PTA

A House committee Wednesday agreed to extend this week's committee deadline for considering controversial legislation proposed by Chicago Public Schools. The request for extra time came from the bill’s House sponsor, Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) who is attempting to broker a compromise between the School Board and the bill’s opponents. Compromise language drafted this week has not brought the two sides together.

The bill’s most controversial provision would give the board the power to overturn a local school council’s decision to seek a new principal. Board officials say the proposal would make LSCs more accountable for decisions they make, while LSC advocates say the legislation, first introduced as Senate Bill 652, would strip LSCs of any real power. (See Point-Counterpoint: A chart on key issues.)

Currie said she is working with both the board and with opponents of the bill, including Parents United for Responsible Education, Designs for Change, and the Lawyers School Reform Advisory Project. She and Sen. Barak Obama (D-Chicago) convened a town hall meeting in Chicago last weekend to solicit input.

Currie told the committee Wednesday that while the proposed legislation finally has been drafted, it has not yet been introduced because it is expected to be rewritten pending further negotiations. The current draft reflects attempts at compromise, especially in the process for reviewing an LSC decision not to retain a principal.

A previous version had a council’s decision being appealed to a three-member panel, which would make a recommendation to the School Board. Opponents had charged that the proposed makeup of the three-member committee was stacked against LSCs, and they had objected to the final say being given to the School Board.

In the new language, the three-member panel is replaced by a hearing officer from the Illinois State Board of Education, but the Chicago School Board still makes the final decision. Currie said that the state hearing officer process is unlikely to stick, largely because the hearing procedure could take up to six months, and negotiators are looking for a quicker process.

''I'm here today to report on the progress of a work in progress,'' Currie, D-Chicago, told the committee. ''I think it's important that you get a sense of where we are in the process.

"Two weeks ago, we were here discussing the concepts of this legislation, but we had no actual language to show you,'' Currie said, as staff distributed copies of the 57-page legislation to committee members.

''I'm sorry you are just now getting this amendment in front of you,'' she said. ''Some members of the public saw this language only last night, when it came out of the Legislative Reference Bureau," a state agency which puts legislators' ideas into legislative language.

Designs for Change spokesman Bernard Lacour told the committee the pending legislation and the issues involved are too complex for legislators to adequately consider with only four weeks left in the spring session. He asked lawmakers to postpone the subject until the fall session or the next spring session.

''Why spend only three weeks on this when you could have spent four months?'' Lacour, policy reform director at Designs for Change, asked the committee, adding CPS could have proposed legislation much earlier than mid-March.

''There's too much in this to work out in too short a time,'' he said. ''There has been some hearing and discussion of the elements mentioned today, but no other elements have been heard and discussed. We'd still like to see this delayed until a later session."

Lacour and other opponents will have a chance to be heard, said Rep. Larry Woolard (D-Carterville) the committee’s chairperson. ''We as members of the committee, and Barbara, as the sponsor, will be receptive to your comments," Woolard said.

"We will reserve any questions we have for after the next few days, when, hopefully, we'll have an analysis of the (finished) legislation by staff on both sides of the aisle,'' Woolard said. ''Without question this is a work in progress, but hopefully, this eventually will fly out of here in a form that everyone can agree on.''

The committee minority spokeswoman, Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw, R-Naperville, agreed. ''Obviously, there is a cutting issue that needs to be resolved here -- a sticky wicket,'' Cowlishaw told Currie. ''It's really gratifying to see that you're trying to negotiate this.''

''I hope you still feel this way when this legislation is no longer a work in progress,'' Currie replied.

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