NW Illinois News

State Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) is urging her constituents to attend an Illinois State Board of Education Professional Review Panel meeting in December that will address a proposal for training and culturally responsive teaching.

The lawmaker took to Facebook on Nov. 8 to urge the body to prioritize what she believes are more important matters in education.

“Let's stick to the basics folks … We have students throughout Illinois that are not meeting current standards in reading and math; pushing a social agenda in our schools will not improve these numbers,” McCombie wrote. “We know the majority of Illinoisans do not  support these measures after the controversy of ‘culturally responsive teaching standards’ in [Joint Committee on Administrative Rules] and the National Sex-Ed Standards passed and coming to our schools.”

The meeting is scheduled for Dec. 6 from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the ISBE headquarters in Springfield.

According to the website Just the News, the panel will consider a proposal that earmarks at least some of an available $350 million in funding on “implicit bias” and “antiracism” training in schools.

Among recommendations, the site reported, are foreign languages to add to school curricula, as well as proposals to include “interventions to have more explicit focus on  racial dynamic, including equity direct approaches that offer concrete strategies for teachers’ behavioral changes in the classroom and  increased bias awareness.”

Aside from the wrangling over “critical race theory,” Illinois schools have also been caught in the middle of a tug-of-war regarding mask mandates.

Democratic leaders assert students and teachers must wear masks in class to help slow the spread of COVID-19 while their GOP counterparts decry the mandates as government overreach.

Having served on the Elementary-Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies Committee during the 102nd General Assembly, McCombie last month hosted holiday supply drive for child advocacy centers.

“Often, members of our community have no reason to know about the work of our children’s advocacy centers, but the work they do is critical when responding to children who have been abused,” the legislator said, Rock Island Today reported. “When I asked these organizations if they had needs for donations of supplies to do their important work, they sent over lists which my staff compiled into a universal wishlist to allow community members to help out.”