Progress Illinois

In recent months, we've been following the uproar over the City of Chicago's school closing procedures, as well as a proposal (HB 363) but forth by State Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) to place a moratorium on such closings until the process is improved.  Yesterday, via Newstips 2.0, came this dispatch from Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), which has been advocating in favor of the bill.  PURE reports that the bill is nearing passage in the House, but that the provision applying a one year moratorium has been stripped out via an amendment:

What is does call for, though, is important and deserves our support. There will be an independent panel made up of legislators and representatives of community groups which have a track record in  school facilities issues. This panel will design a fair, effective process for making facilities decisions which will then be enacted into law. 

Interestingly, the amendment also calls for an annual report such as the one described in CPS's current school closing policy, the one they seem to be unable to locate to comply with our FOIA request.

While we are not getting everything we asked for in HB 363, it is a major accomplishment to get this much when CPS and the mayor must have opposed it with every fiber of their we-hate-open-public-processes-and-fair-decision-making beings.

Today is the deadline for passing most measures out of the General Assembly chamber in which they originated.  We'll be watching for a vote on the bill.  In the meantime, you can learn more about the search for that annual report here.