* The Invest in Kids Act extension bill needs 71 votes to pass the House. House Republican Leader Tony McCombie told WJPF Radio host Tom Miller today that there are only 57 votes in the House…
Chris Welch will not call it. He has, from my understanding, 17 hard yeses on the Democrat side of the aisle. We only have 40. So some on our side of the aisle say ‘Well, you know, you could do more, you could do more.’ And my issue is I have 40 Republicans in the House, they have 17 hard yeses. That’s 57. I can do the math. And Welch will not call a bill when a bill is not going to be passed. He is not going to put his members on a bill and put pressure on them when there’s no bill to be solidly passed. So it’s not going to be called by the Speaker. There is a compromise by the advocates, I would say a compromise that they worked very hard on, carried by Representative Guerrero, and one that I believe Republicans, I know Republicans would support, I know 17 Democrats would support, but it’s not enough to apply pressure to the Democrats for Speaker Welch to call it.
Except the Illinois Freedom Caucus refused to support Rep. Guerrero-Cuellar’s bill. They did signal a willingness to compromise yesterday, but, again, the bill doesn’t have 71 votes, so it doesn’t mean much…
As the Illinois General Assembly convenes for this year’s’ final week of Veto Session in Springfield, we must take action to support the Invest in Kids Scholarship Program before its’ sunset December 31st.
The Illinois Freedom Caucus has been engaged in working out an agreement that addresses the concerns about enhanced targeting of the scholarships to the students most in need, and including a reasonable sunset where the program can be reviewed. We appreciate Representative Guerrero-Cuellar’s willingness to put a proposal on the table. We support this legislation (HB4194) with the following amendments:
1. Maintaining the scholarship program’s credit cap at $75 Million
2. Allowing for a 65% tax credit for regular contributions, and 75% tax credit for contributions to an underserved area.
We remain committed to working with all sides to see this successful program extended in the most meaningful way. The children who are counting on us to protect their educational opportunities deserve an up or down vote on this bill.
No such amendment has yet been filed.
- Big Dipper - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 3:39 pm:
IFC cares so much about education but has two botched uses of apostrophes in one sentence.
- Rudy’s teeth - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 3:42 pm:
Time to send in the Grammar Police.
- H-W - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 3:48 pm:
Democrats: 78 Republicans: 40.
I have 40, they have 17 hard yeses.
118 seats divided by 2 equals 59.
You have 57, so even if this were on the table during the regular session, you are saying you do not have enough (despite having all Republicans toe the line without question).
Perhaps if an amendment were to say, “only those households below the poverty threshold are eligible to receive funding through tax revenues to send their children to private schools” you could sway two more votes next session. Perhaps not.
But right now, your party has offered no amendment. You did not have enough votes in the regular session, you do not have enough now, and your counting suggests you will not have enough going forward without changing your stance.
That is not leadership. That is grandstanding.
- thechampaignlife - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 3:52 pm:
I’d’ve told ‘em y’all’dn’t've.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 4:13 pm:
=That is not leadership. That is grandstanding.=
The gop in a nutshell.
In Illinois there is so much room for them to gain seats. All they have to do is move to the center, really just be the Jim Edgar gop and support reproductive rights and they could have huge gains in the suburbs in particular. They just don’t want that. They are happy with their handful of safe rural seats and a monopoly on yelling at the clouds.
To the post…
As a matter of principle I am totally opposed to public dollars flowing to private schools, and this is a sort of backdoor voucher attempt. But, if the schools receiving the money were subject to the same rules as all other public schools, I could soften my position.
- Skewl - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 4:28 pm:
Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully those kids will be in school tomorrow.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 5:07 pm:
The Mensa nihilists saying they have a compromise after being “all or nothing” days ago is the reminder what it means to be a nihilist.
If they were about saving things, then why be so strident mere “days” ago?
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 7:42 pm:
=== If they were about saving things, then why be so strident mere “days” ago? ===
As I said in my post, some folks can only see the move right in front of them, and not how that move will look next week.
Political campaigns can’t be won by arguing about last week, because come Election Day, you are a week behind.
Policy debates are a different story.
Good luck getting to 60-30–1 in the spring after this abominable failure.
Not gonna happen. Save your money, folks.