Neighbor-
Final Week of Veto
Tomorrow we begin the last week of our Fall veto session. Unfortunately, our first week saw little action on the house floor. Many important issues such as the Invest in Kids Act and the nuclear energy bill have gone ignored. Hopefully, we can put aside partisan politics and come together to find solutions for the people of Illinois!
New Bill Roundtable
Join me for a new bill roundtable at my district office in Mokena! I am always looking for constituent ideas on new legislation I can bring forward to benefit our community, and this roundtable is an opportunity for me to hear from you.
Date: Tuesday, November 14th
Time: 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Location: 11019 Front Street, Suite 1W, Mokena
This event is open to all constituents in District 37. For anyone who is interested in sharing ideas but is unable to attend, I encourage you to email your ideas to timozinga@ilhousegop.org.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Blood Drive and Shred Event
Thank you to everyone who came out to the Blood Drive and Shred Events this month! We had a great turnout for both events. I also want to extend a special thank you to Versiti Blood Bank of Illinois and Shark Shredding for partnering with my office for these events.
Illinois Annual Report Card Released
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) releases annual report card on Illinois public schools. The report card, which included attendance data, student absenteeism data, and aggregated test score data for each Illinois school and school district, covered numbers generated through the end of the 2023 spring school term. This was the final term of the first full school year since the lifting of the substantial barriers to in-school classroom learning that had characterized the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdown.
During the pandemic, Illinois school attendance and test score performances showed substantial drops. The declines were especially pronounced among students from at-risk backgrounds who attend challenged Illinois public schools. The 2023 Report Card showed partial recoveries from the troughs notched during the pandemic, but full recoveries were not posted. While the headcounts of public school students characterized as being “proficient” rose 16% in English and 4% in math, these numbers remained below the numbers that had been achieved by Illinois public schools and their students in 2019, before the start of the pandemic.
Furthermore, overall numbers show continued high numbers of students chronically absent from classrooms. Almost one-third of all Illinois public school students, 30%, missed more than 17 school days last year. This is especially significant because when a student who is often absent returns to class, the student’s performance and behavior may create additional challenges for the student and classmates.
Keep Up to Date
Click here to visit my website. There you can contact my office, see what legislation I am working on, and more.
I will continue to update you monthly via this e-newsletter about events and programs I will be hosting throughout the year, as well as important information regarding upcoming legislation.