Capitol Buzz - March 2009

Hi, Everyone!
I receive weekly Capitol Buzz reports from our IEA government relations director. I’ve taken out some of the items I thought would be of most concern to our members…items on special education, TA sick days accumulation, service credit for private school teaching, and the WEP.
Jim Reed’s contact info is at the end of this email. Contact him for further information, if needed.
Em


Committee Action

House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee
HB 628 (Osterman, D-Chicago) amends the Children with Disabilities Article. The bill allows for a parent to retain an expert witness to evaluate their child. It also gives the witness “reasonable and unimpeded” access to educational facilities in order to observe the child in their current or proposed educational program or placement. IEA opposes the bill because of the loose definition of “reasonable and unimpeded” access and the potential number of witnesses coming into a classroom. This bill passed out of committee by a vote of 11-2-1. The IEA is working with the sponsor to reach an agreement on our differences

House Personnel and Pensions
HB 1148 (Joyce, D-Chicago) allows those that taught in a private school while having a valid teaching certificate to purchase up to two years of service credit for those years of service. Furthermore, the legislation indicates a teacher must continue teaching for a minimum of 10 years in the public schools to be able to have the service applied toward their retirement. The cost of the benefit would be 16.5 percent of first-year salary, plus interest. This benefit will sunset in three years. This was formerly a benefit for our members until it was allowed to expire a few years ago. This is an IEA initiative that passed out of committee unanimously

Senate Education Committee
SB 261 (Noland, D–Elgin) is an initiative of the IEA. The bill provides that if an ESP does not use the full amount of annual sick leave allowed, the unused amount shall be allowed to accumulate to a minimum available leave of 240 (instead of 180) days at full pay, including the leave of the current year. The bill was reluctantly passed out of committee on a partisan roll call. The Democrats allowed the bill to be voted out of committee but have some major concerns with the bill. The Republicans voted “no” citing that this issue could be bargained locally. See the IEA fact sheet here

Senate Pensions and Investment Committee
SR 75 (Bond-D-Grayslake) encourages and supports action by Congress to enact legislation to repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision from the Social Security Act. Although this is a federal issue, the resolution helps raise awareness of this problem among the members of the General Assembly. It passed unanimously out of committee. The IEA supported this legislation







Jim Reed
IEA Government Relations Director
Illinois Education Association-NEA
Jim.Reed1@ieanea.org
100 East Edwards Street
Springfield, IL 62704
217/544-0706, ext. 242
Web: www.ieanea.org