“When it comes to admissions, we need to look at the larger picture of a student’s academic career, not just how they filled out bubbles on a single Saturday,” Rep. LaToya Greenwood said. “The ACT and SAT can serve as a barrier to college for students from underprivileged backgrounds, with a correlation between household income and test success.”

Tim Schneider, Former Illinois Republican Chairman: “These decisions were made in a vacuum by one political party and did not take into account the true representation of the state.”

The additional funding announced today is made possible through the Coronavirus Relief Fund under the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act through the administration’s careful management of pandemic-related resources and actions to shift pandemic-related costs to funds provided under the American Rescue Plan Act.

“The question, however, is what the future holds, and there’s no clear answer. The economy, which is recovering from the lockdowns forced by the pandemic, looks relatively good, but still has considerable room to grow. Unfortunately, there are too many unfilled jobs in the private sector to be confident that Illinois’ economy will return to its pre-pandemic growth rate.”

Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, of Wirepoints: “Ignore the claims by Illinois lawmakers of their heroic acts of ‘balanced budgets,’ ‘fiscal discipline’ and the like. Even if those claims were true, and they are not, they couldn’t by themselves create such a swing in Illinois’ short-term fortunes.”

“The concept of critical race theory has sparked conversations across the country, especially among conservatives. Many local residents have expressed opposition to the theory, saying it is an effort to rewrite American history and persuade white people they are inherently racist.”

The new recommendations slightly loosen some requirements – such as students wearing masks outdoors – for everyone and allow freedom from many COVID-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated students and staff. However, many restrictions still apply to unvaccinated members of school communities and will disappoint those who had urged relaxed rules for everyone.

“While it’s a definite positive that parents all over the country are finally starting to wake up to the fact that public schools have for decades been indoctrinating their children in leftist ideology, more direct action will be required. To have some input over the curriculum foisted on their children, people will have to get involved in elections for their local school boards.”