Kendall County Times

With the school masking mandate at the center of many of the rising debates now drawing attention across Illinois, GOP state Sen. Sue Rezin thinks Springfield will soon be the place to be.

“The required supermajority of JCAR was unwilling to publicly chastise ISBE for the arbitrary implementation of enforcement tools, so we set a 30-day clock for them to bring us rules,” Rezin posted on Facebook. “I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the 30-day extension brings us to when the legislature will reconvene. We will have to see if ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) brings us rules, or if they will ask the legislature to take up the issue legislatively.”

Ever since Gov. J.B. Pritzker moved to reimpose his universal masking mandate for all public and private school students just before classrooms across the state were slated to resume in-person learning, ISBE officials have revoked the recognition of more than 60 schools and districts for not adhering to the governor’s dictum.

According to ABC20, though, they don't have to.

Being stripped of recognition or placed on probation could lead to a school being stripped of all state funding and declared not be eligible to participate in ISHA sponsored athletics. 

Critics of the governor’s approach argue ISBE is not required to act in that way given the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules only made a recommendation along those lines.

Still others are quick to point out that public school districts get a two-month probation period before recognition and funding is revoked, but private schools can be immediately slapped with such harsh penalties.

"Our concern is about the process and for these nonpublic schools," Rezin ABC20. "ISBE came in pretty heavy handedly."

As of the middle of September, four public districts remained on probation and nine private schools were still considered unrecognized.