The Examiner U-46 News FeedU-46 Board of Education votes on state legislation By Seth Hancock
Members of the School District U-46 Board of Education voted down, with a 0-7 vote, a resolution affirming support for House Bill 4186 in the Illinois General Assembly, at its Monday, June 24 meeting.
HB4186 was filed on Oct. 23, 2023 and there’s been no action on it since January of this year.
The bill is aimed towards making it easier for student schedules to seek career and technical courses by dropping the requirement for two years of foreign language coursework for one year instead for graduation requirements.
The resolution stated of the bill that it “allows a pupil to take one year of a foreign language course (rather than 2 years), if, upon completing one year of foreign language coursework, the pupil, the pupil's parent or guardian, and the school counselor meet to discuss the pupil’s postsecondary education or career goals.”
Although voted down, the action was primarily for cleaning up language in case the legislation sees amendments that the board didn’t support. The board, which generally agreed with the intent of HB4186, plans to have further discussions to potentially clean up the language of the resolution.
Board member Dawn Martin, however, did express some opposition to the legislation itself stating she’d like to see more “generic” legislation that affirms “local control.”
The board did unanimously approve, via a 7-0 vote, of a resolution supporting state legislation that would affirm that attainment of the Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy would satisfy world language requirements for graduation.
Similar to the HB4186 resolution, the board did have some concerns with the language which they cleared up that evening. It was amended to change the word “generally” to “may” to clarify that attainment of the seal of biliteracy does not automatically equate to college credits at every state college or university.
The resolution, as amended, states: “The Seal of Biliteracy was established in Illinois to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in one or more languages in addition to English…. The Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy is designated on a student’s transcript and diploma…. The Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy may translates into foreign language course credit at public colleges and universities.”
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