Chicago City Wire

A bill that would require schools in Illinois to install walk-through metal detectors at each public entrance has been referred to the House Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies Committee for further consideration.

House Bill 191, the Safe Spaces in Public Places Act, would also require law enforcement to install metal detectors at entry points into courthouses beginning in 2020.

In the case of state schools, the proposal comes when the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is already struggling with budget issues, with the Rock River Times reporting ISBE members are now seeking nearly $20 billion, or at least half of the entire state budget, to fund public schools next year.

Back in 2018, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed off on a budget that provided just over $12 billion for ISBE operations, sans appropriations.

More recently, state Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) has moved to introduce a bill that would require all public schools to take on the cost of instituting an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum for students from kindergarten through graduation.

Now in House committee, the bill would make Illinois just the third state in the country to mandate such requirements.

Given Illinois’s overall fragile financial standing, state Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) insists, it is time for lawmakers in Springfield to get serious about how and at what levels education is funded across the state.

“I don’t think that it (the bill) does much to kick-start the legitimate conversation in Springfield about how we fund our public school system statewide,” he said. “It has to be reconciled or balanced against the financial pressures that our state continues to bear.”