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This Weeks Town Hall

w/Illinois Policy's Mailee Smith

A Presentation about Amendment 1 followed with a round of Q & A

Tuesday 11.1.22 @6;00p

Iron Horse Club House

2000 Iron Horse Dr, Tuscola

In Case You Missed Last Weeks Virtual Town Hall w/Congressman Andy Biggs on 10.25.22

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Where are the Fact Checkers When You Need Them?

The Illinois State Board of Education released its latest report on school performance. There is a lot of data to go through, so I briefly want to raise your attention to two issues—you decide if this makes sense to you.

First, the graduation rate increased overall to 87.3%. At the same time, the percentage of students rated as proficient in English Language Arts and Math decreased. Chalkbeat, which reported on the report, wrote:

“On the SAT—a standardized exam used by many colleges as part of admission criteria—29.8% of the state’s 11th graders were proficient in reading while 28.8% were proficient in math in 2022, a drop of almost 7 percentage points in reading and 6 percentage points in math from 2019. “

So, 30% proficient, but 87% graduation rate.  There’s a disconnect somewhere.

Read more here: Illinois students’ 2022 test scores are still below pre-pandemic levels - Chalkbeat Chicago

Second, ISBE is crowing about an increase in “student growth” by 54% in ELA and 52% in Math.  Student growth measures learning growth for individual students year over year.  For comparison, student growth in 2019 was 50%.  These percentages are averages. To be clear, measuring growth when the baseline was so low to begin with is cooing about nothing. This is especially true considering that student performance is dramatically down.

In the report which you can read at the link below is this salient acknowledgement:

 “As expected, about 20 percent fewer students met or exceeded grade level standards on spring 2022 assessments, compared to 2019. “

Additionally, Chalkboard reported that,

“Preliminary results released today from the 2022 Illinois Assessment of Readiness, known as the IAR, show that 29.9% of students between third grade and eighth grade met or exceeded state standards in reading, a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. In math, 25.8% of students in those grades met or exceeded state standards, a 6.2 percentage point decline from 2019. “

Read ISBE’s entire spin at this link: News - 2022 Illinois Report Card shows highest graduation... (isbe.net)

Shamefully, I had to find the real performance info in the Chalkbeat report as there was no mention of actual performance results in the ISBE “News” on the 2022 report. The data is not uploaded yet to the Report Card section on the ISBE website.

More Pathetic Excuses, Zero Responsibility

As businesses closed and job losses spiked during the pandemic, Illinois took out millions of dollars in advances from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits.

Even with the federal aid, Pritzker Democrats are still asking for more. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza has been pushing for a bill sponsored by Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth which would retroactively wipe out millions in interest costs for the advances that have piled up.

Illinois Unemployment Worst In The Nation

This is what you get when you elect inept and corrupt Pritzker Democrats who do nothing to responsibly manage pensions, property taxes and a balanced budget. Add a hostile business environment to the recipe and you have one toxic brew.

Illinois Unions & Democrats Want Unchecked Power

If Illinoisans vote for Amendment 1 on the November ballot, they can kiss parents’ rights, lower taxes and any hope for Illinois’ future goodbye.

Another look at what Amendment 1 could mean if it is adopted.

This Is What Corruption Looks Like

If Illinoisans shrug their shoulders and continue to accept fraud and deception from our leaders, we will just get more of the same. Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Governor Pritzker think the criminal prosecution case of Jenny Thornley is a joke. They claim they know nothing about it as they laugh it off.

The complicit Illinois mainstream media is doing nothing to follow up on this story.

Candy Is Taxed at 6.25% In Illinois

But this Halloween, you can trick the greedy politicians who came up with this arbitrary tax. They justify it by claiming that candy is not ‘food’, but if you hand out treats that contain flour (which Democrats count as ‘food’), you won’t even have to pay the 1% grocery tax. This is because our oh-so-generous governor suspended the tax under the election-year guise of a “Family Relief Plan”.

So, go for it!

Hand out those Kit Kats, Twizzlers, Hershey’s Cookies ’n’ Cream, Goetze’s Caramel Creams, Whoppers and Twix. They all contain flour.

Crops Made Money After All

In areas of Illinois where very little rain fell this summer, farmers braced themselves for disappointment. But the season finished well in spite of a delayed harvest.

PHOTOS:

Central Illinois’ Spectacular Fall Colors

Halbrook Annual Christmas Dinner

Thursday 12.1.22

Yoders Kitchen

Details be announced within the week...