State Superintendent Dr. Carmen Ayala did not specify any benchmarks for what would make the situation completely safe. “We have worked very strongly throughout this entire pandemic in recognizing that we have 852 school districts across the state that are very unique and diverse and special. We have really worked at encouraging the in-person instruction as much as possible. But, needing to recognize that every community has their uniqueness to be able to come in fully in-person.”

As this legislative session heats up, Pritzker is still reviewing and signing bills that passed during the last legislative session, such as the bill that would restore many of the Chicago Teachers Union’s bargaining rights.

“If you’re walking, lets say in your scenario, and you have 20 balloons and the wind catches it and they take them out of your hand, that’s not a knowing release, that’s an accidental release,” said Representative Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake).

“In a state where taxpayers were already overburdened by the cost of government, these changes are particularly onerous. Illinoisans now pay the third-highest gas taxes in the country, according to the Tax Foundation, at 52 cents per gallon. Compare that with the adjacent states of Wisconsin (32.9 cents), Iowa (30.5), Missouri (17.4) and Kentucky (26). Only Indiana comes close, at 47.6. The national average is 31.7 cents per gallon.”

The legislation is the second major omnibus bill backed by the Black Caucus that Pritzker has signed this year.

The most recent order clarifies that renters can be protected from eviction as long as they submit their declaration form, even if they submit the form after their landlord began legal action to evict them.

Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from Suburban Homewood who was a lead negotiator in the House for the evidence-based formula in 2017, said there are “a number of” House Democrats “who are not happy with the governor’s introduced budget” as it relates to the evidence-based funding formula. He suggested the state should treat the funding increase as it does pension or bond debt, which is considered a baseline expense that other state spending should be built around.

Senate President Don Harmon told the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute to reverse population loss, the state must address its fiscal issues, including the pension liability. “If we can get our arms around that then I think the economic and fiscal future of the state is far brighter. We have to tackle that honestly and directly and not hope for magic beans to make somebody else solve the problem for us.”

Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools President Mark Klaisner said a number of factors have discouraged young adults from entering into the profession, including changes in the state’s pension system and the occasional villainizing of teachers. “The work is harder, the years are longer, the days are longer, the compensation’s not keeping up with the economy.”

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said on social media she and Gov. J.B. Pritzker agreed that federal dollars the state is expected to get should be prioritized to pay back recently borrowed federal funds.

“While the state’s business tax burden ranks 36th in the U.S., labor costs are in the middle (28th) and energy costs are a big advantage (13th) for an overall ranking of 26th, according to Moody’s.”

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said just 50 of the more than 700 nursing homes in the state received the serious citation in the new inspections in 2020.

James Zay, a DuPage County board member, listened as, one-by-one, county officials laid out the millions of extra costs they were anticipating in the coming years because of sweeping criminal justice reforms recently signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker. “I am just sitting here astounded,” he said. “I mean, this is going to have a major effect on county government and guess what, other aspects of county government are going to suffer because of this, because we don’t have the money.”

“To claim that Illinois and Connecticut act as donor states, Mendoza and Lembo are ‘counting’ on the money sent by their state’s taxpayers to the federal government, a very large amount. But when they call for federal ‘relief,’ they aren’t calling for federal money for state taxpayers. They are calling for federal ‘relief’ to be sent to state governments. They are adding and subtracting apples and oranges, deceptively.”

“The people in Illinois, like people across this nation, have three priorities: stop this pandemic in its tracks; second, get the economy moving again and people back to work; and third, get the kids back in school,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “Those are the three top priorities in every household across our state, and they are priorities that were served with this American Rescue Plan.”

In addition to the emergency safety net funds provided to individuals, the rescue package, if approved by the House and signed by Biden, sends to Illinois: $7.5 billion for the state of Illinois; $1.8 billion for the city of Chicago; $5.5 billion for other governments (including $2.4 billion for Illinois counties, $2.4 billion for larger cities, and $681 million for smaller municipalities); about $275 million in vaccine distribution money for Illinois; about $1.5 billion in testing and public health money for Illinois health departments plus hundreds of millions for health related services, from hospitals to community health centers; about $1.5

So far in Illinois, more women than men have been fully vaccinated and more people ages 16 to 64 than those 65 and over. Despite the state’s efforts at equity in its vaccine rollout, 70% of the 1 million are white, 8% Black and 8% Hispanic (The remaining 14% of those vaccinated are made up of other races and those where the race of the recipient was not known).