PACE Weekly Newsletter
- June 21, 2007
We have 3 items for you this
week.
1) NO Gifted Funding in
House Bill 4110, which is House Republican caucus State
budget for FY 2008! - Following is message from Phil
Milsk, IAGC's Policy Advisor,
www.iagcgifted.org:
Contact House members to reinstate gifted funding in
the amount of $5 million.
As you probably know, now that we are
in overtime session, the House Republicans must put at
least 5 votes on any budget bill, which puts them right
in the middle of the negotiations. House Bill 4110
represents the proposed House Republican caucus State
budget for FY 2008.
Despite strong support for funding
for gifted education by many House Republican members
and Leader Cross himself, there does NOT appear to be
any funding for gifted education in this proposal.
There is also NO funding for gifted education in Speaker
Madigan's proposed budget, SB 1132, House Amendment
#1. (There was $5 million for gifted in the version of
SB 1132 that passed the Senate, but the House stripped
it out).
* We need to let our House Republican and Democratic
friends know that gifted funding is NOT included in
either proposed House budget and tell them to make good
on their pledge to include $5 million for gifted
education in the budget!
The text of both bills can be reviewed on the General
Assembly's website
http://www.ilga.gov/
in PDF format. ISBE's budget begins on page 56 in HB
4110 and on page 1 of SB 1132, House Amendment #1.
Please contact these House members:
* House Republican Leader
Tom Cross:
tom@tomcross.com,
phone (217) 782-1331, fax(217) 782-3234, 316 State
Capitol Building, Springfield, IL 62706, phone (815)
254-0000 in Plainfield
* Rep. Linda Chapa La Via: lindachapalavia@aol.com, (217)
558-1002, fax(217) 782-0927, 235 E. Stratton
Building, Springfield, IL 62706
3) Parent Resource
- Here is a helpful resource from IAGC: If you would
like to receive Genius Denied
Newsletter, Jan and Bob Davidson's monthly
newsletter of the latest news and information about
needs of gifted learners, and/or
DITD eNews-Update, the Davidson
Institute's monthly update of new information and
resources for gifted students, parents, and educators,
go to
http://news.ditd.org/signup/signup.html.