Prairie State Wire

A House Bill that would allow the governor to shut down all public and private schools received more criticism this week, this time from Wirepoint's Ted Dabrowski on the Chicago Morning Answer. 

House Bill 2789, which gives the governor and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) authority to shut down a school that appears to not be following IDPH protocols during an emergency order, was said to put autonomy for local schools at risk by opponents. 

"This is the big centralization that's going on in all government," Dabrowski said. "Whether it's at the national level when they try to federalize a lot of things by doling out the trillions that they're handing out."

On the Illinois level, Dabrowski said that the centralization is local boards, including public and private schools, being stripped of power. He stated that decision-making should be kept as local as possible so that the decisions are what's best for the community. 

"Let's strip everybody from decision-making and put it in a central source," Dabrowski said. "We've seen how bad that's been. If there's one lesson learned from COVID it's that the experts know nothing and they make so many mistakes."

With HB 2789 allowing the governor and IDPH to authorize and enforce protocols over any educational institution in the state, including home schooling and private schools, critics have dubbed the bill an overreach into local autonomy. 

The bill allows the governor to order closure of a school if a single non-compliance complaint is received. Catholic and private schools were mostly open throughout the pandemic, and that individual decision-making power will be overruled under HB 2789.

Dabrowski said shifting this much power to the governor will be one of the "biggest mistakes ever."

"If you go the other way and you let school districts open up or not, if everybody wants to stay closed they can, but it's local," he said. "Giving one person that much power is wrong."

According to earlier reporting from Prairie State Wire, the legislation is strongly supported by state teachers' unions, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association. Teachers' unions have clashed with local school boards over the decision to reopen schools for in-person instruction.

Illinois is one of many states where alternative schooling, such as private and home schooling, have seen an uptick in popularity among grade school parents. 

HB 2789 was sponsored by Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg) and saw strong skepticism from House Republicans; 42 of 45 voted against the bill and three GOP lawmakers were marked excused. 

The governor's bill is now with the Senate Assignments Committee.