Dear Editor,
Another unnecessary anti-family bill is advancing in Springfield. The Homeschool Act (HB 2827) will impose fines and jail time on parents who don’t file a “Homeschool Declaration Form.” In other words, those that don’t register with their local district and provide their curriculum for the school to review will be punished, fined, and even serve jail time.
Many parents choose to homeschool in response to the mandates being passed into law in Springfield. For example: since 2019, students are now required to be proficient in LGBT history. In 2021, they passed a law that required sex ed be taught starting in kindergarten. Five-year-olds are taught to define what lesbians, homosexuals, and transgenders are, while the curriculum gradually gets more graphic in older grades. It’s some of the most sexually explicit material in the nation, supplied by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion and sex-ed curriculum provider. Such curriculum is an invitation to early sexual activity.
Moreover, this bill allows a truancy officer to interview a child without a parent present for the purpose of launching an investigation.
The bill redefines homeschooling to a single family and prohibits 2 or more households from receiving instruction under a cooperative agreement.
One seriously flawed reason for this bill is to protect children from homeschooling parents “who don’t do it the right way.” As if the state does it better!
On average, homeschooled students score 15 to 25 percentile points above their public school counterparts on standardized tests. Black homeschooled students test scores are even higher - 23 to 42 percentile points higher than Black public school students!
The Illinois Report Card is the state’s official window into how students are testing in math, English Language Arts and Science. The 2024 numbers are nothing but shocking, as they have been for many years.
Only 31.1 percent of high school seniors met or exceeded proficiency in ELA while the graduation rate is at 88 percent. If more than two-thirds of students can’t read, why are they passing them to the next grade and then graduating them? Public schools are sending them into the world ill-equipped. The overwhelming majority can’t read! And our tax dollars are funding this ongoing disaster.
Math is even worse. Only 26.1 percent of high school students can do math at high school level.
They need to focus on the glaring problems in Illinois public schools and not the families who sacrifice to equip their children to become well-educated productive citizens.
I say, “Get them out of public schools and start homeschooling!” Homeschooled children are not the problem. They are the solution!
Urge your state lawmakers to reject HB 2827.
Kathy Valente, Director of Operations
Illinois Family Institute
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University High's Robert Gao celebrates after grueling doubles victory against Urbana's Karl Bonita and Santi Lleras. Narrowing taking the first set, and dropping the second, Gao and partner Kyle Fan won the tiebreak, 10-7. See more match photos below.
URBANA - Despite less-than-favorable weather conditions—a steady breeze and temperatures in the mid-40s—at Atkins Tennis Center, the Uni High boys tennis team swept all six singles matches Tuesday in a home contest against crosstown rival Urbana High School, cruising to an 8-1 victory.
Freshman Jameson LaFave defeated Urbana junior Xander Ashley 7-6 (5), 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Ashley bounced back in doubles, teaming with Sam Sherwood for the Tigers' lone win of the day. The Urbana duo rallied past Josh Persiani and Ian Pan at No. 2 doubles, winning 2-6, 6-1, 10-7.
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Urbana's Sam Sherwood lines up backhand shot during his double match with partner Xander Ashley at No. 2 doubles.
At No. 1 doubles, Urbana’s Santi Lleras and Karl Bonita dropped the first set 7-6 (5) but made dozens of sharp plays and dominated serve-plus-one points to take the second set 6-2. However, Uni High’s Robert Gao and Kyle Fan showed resilience in the third-set tiebreak, capturing the final three points after a 7-7 deadlock to close out the match.
Urbana returns to action Wednesday for a nonconference match against St. Thomas More at Atkins. The Illineks will travel to Bloomington on Saturday before hosting St. Teresa at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Match Results
Singles:
No. 1 - Jameson LaFave, Uni def. Xander Ashley, Urbana 7-6 (5), 6-2
No. 2 - Swapnil Kumar, Uni def. Karl Bonita, Urbana 6-1 , 6-3
No. 3 - Robert Gao, Uni def. Santi Lleras, Urbana 6-2 , 6-2
No. 4 - Kyle Fan, Uni def. Samuel Sherwood, Urbana 6-2 , 6-2
No. 5 - Josh Persiani, Uni def. Theodore Nevins, Urbana 6-3 , 6-4
No. 6 - Ian Pan, Uni def. Gus Rund, Urbana 6-2 , 1-6 , 10-5
Doubles:
No. 1 - Robert Gao - Kyle Fan, Uni def. Santi Lleras, Urbana - Karl Bonita, Urbana 6-3 , 2-6 , 10-7
No. 2 - Xander Ashley - Samuel Sherwood, Urbana def. Josh Persiani - Ian Pan, Uni 2-6 , 6-1 , 10-7
No. 3 - Collins Rosch - Tristen Ting, Uni def. Theodore Nevins - Gus Rund, Urbana 7-6 (5), 6-2
An astonishing number of Trump supporters took the dangling video bait and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
After last weekend's Hands Off! protests across the country, TikTok creator @redsaidblue posted a satirical video, sprinkled with subtle digs at popular MAGA stereotypes, in which she claimed to be attending the protest as a paid participant. In the video, she described what she could and couldn’t wear, who her point of contact was, and that she would receive a bonus for bringing a sign.
"I got paid $100 for going to the protest, and I got an extra $10 for bringing the sign," she confesses to viewers in character as a Trump supporter going over to the other side to make a few bucks. "Overall, it was a pretty good experience. The people were pretty nice."
A MAGA supporter on X (formerly Twitter) with over 200,000 followers, "@TheEXECUTlONER_", posted the performance to his account and encouraged other Trump supporters to share it. The buffoonery sailed by unchecked by rational thought or rudimentary critical thinking.
There were 1,400 Hands Off! demonstrations across the country on Saturday. The majority drew well over 1,000 participants. Conservatively, someone or some entity would have spent around $140 million (before signs). The kicker: an estimated 3 million people took part in the nationwide protests. If all the marchers were punching the proverbial clock, someone would have spent $300 million—which might have been a boon to the economy after the stock market experienced its steepest plunge since COVID, during Trump’s first term.
While @redsaidblue wasn’t actually paid to protest—it's not clear if she even attended one—the blue-check MAGA user is making bank. As of this story, the video had been shared by 24,000 other accounts on the social media platform. While the young woman wasn’t actually paid for the protest, the account that posted her video is cleaning up, having collected 47,000 likes and over 3,000 comments so far.
Meanwhile, the creator began receiving negative backlash from liberals for posting the video, which she eventually took down. She is now attempting to remove copies from the internet. Supporters from the left were enraged, claiming her video added fuel to the political fire by implying extreme right conservatives aren’t smart enough to recognize when they’re being punked.
It appears her critics were right. The video—or screenshots with text excerpts from it—is circulating on conservative social media channels as supposed proof that liberal protesters are social justice mercenaries, reinforcing the narrative that liberals only protest against the Trump administration because they are paid.
Redsaidblue posted a follow-up video to her TikTok account yesterday, apologizing to fellow liberals for harming their movement.
"I truly thought it was so obvious that it was a joke. I thought that if anyone did take it seriously, if they shared it with someone else, the next person would be like, "Bro, that's satire".
Do paid protesters actually exist? They don't, according to an article from USA Today.
"Time after time, claims of "paid protesters" have been debunked, sometimes by the very people who made them in the first place," according to an article by John R. Roby.
Leo Gertner wrote a piece for The Washington Post entitled, "So what if protesters are paid?"
Gertner wrote, "So the next time someone tries to discredit a movement by insinuating that some of the people on the ground are being compensated, ask the all-important question: So what?"
What's the old saying? Freedom isn't free.
Six ways Trump's budget will damage rural Americans' way of life
Right now, Congress is working on a giant, fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
PONTIAC - People everywhere are conquering their cabin fever and are enjoying the great outdoors after a long, bitter winter. But before you head out for that hike, health care experts remind you to take precautions to avoid tick bites. Read more . . .
