State Representative Joe Lyons (D-Chicago) has introduced House Bill 1577, the opportunity scholarship act. This Bill establishes opportunity scholarships for low income children in the city of Chicago to acquire tutoring services or attend a nonpublic school of their choice. The bill also allows for the expansion of these scholarships to other parts of the state after three years. We should all be interested in this bills fate!

Please call, write or fax your State Representative and ask him or her to be a co-sponsor of House Bill 1577. At this point, we want to focus on acquiring co-sponsors because it adds weight to the legislation and is directly tied to the support of that legislator. There is a sample letter that you can print and use from the following web site. www.catholicconferenceofillinois.org .

In the Senate, there are also school choice bills that the Catholic Conference supports. Both Senate Bill 85, Senator Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), and Senate Bill 296, Senator Dan Cronin (R-Lombard), increase the tuition tax credit from $500.00 to $1000.00. If you want to assist in these efforts, please call, write, or fax your State Senator and ask them to support Senate Bills 85 and 296. You can also go to www.peterroskam.com and sign a petition in support of Senate bill 85.

If you need help in identifying your state representative or senator, you can visit the Illinois General Assembly web page at www.ilga.gov and click on Legislator lookup in the lower right hand corner of the home page, or you can call the Catholic Conference of Illinois at 312-368-1066 or 217-528-9200 and they will help you to identify your state representative