A Pritzker Administration Preview; Illinois Sex Ed Laws; Former EU Parliament Member Robert Evans
AP/Nam Y. Huh
On The 21st: Illinois law requires that all sex ed course material must “teach honor and respect for monogamous heterosexual marriage.” What might that mean for LGBT youth? Plus, Robert Evans, a former member of the European Parliament, joins us. But first, in two months JB Pritzker becomes our next governor. He takes office with a Democratic supermajority in the statehouse. We’ll take a look at what’s next in Springfield.
For the next two months or so, JB Pritzker will be getting ready to step in as Governor of Illinois. His win last week means that Democrats have an even stronger hold on state government than they did before.
The Democratic Party now holds every statewide office and, has supermajorities in the General Assembly.
So what should we expect from the Pritzker Administration in 2019 and beyond? Mick Dumke is a reporter with ProPublica Illinois, and he joined us on the line.
In his post-election remarks, @JBPritzker is positioning himself as someone who can work through problems and get things done.
— The 21st (@21stShow) November 13, 2018
Even if he's not mentioning Gov. Rauner's name, it's an implied contrast to Rauner and the budget crisis, says @mickeyd1971.
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Think back to middle school or high school for a moment. Can you remember sitting in health class for sex ed? Perhaps through the awkward laughter your teacher was able to cover the basics.
But what are the basics? Maybe the class only touched on heterosexual relationships. Or maybe you had no sex ed at all!
Currently, Illinois law does not require sex ed across all school districts. It also does not mandate that sex ed curriculum include discussion of LGBT identities and experiences. But, it does say that all course material must “teach honor and respect for monogamous heterosexual marriage.”
Lily Furgeson is a 17 year old senior at Jones College Prep in Chicago.
Lee Gaines has been reporting on this for the Illinois Newsroom and she joined us in our Urbana studio. We also spoke with Dan Rice. Dan is the director of training for Answer, a national organization based at Rutgers University that promotes and trains teachers to provide comprehensive sex education.
.@LeeVGaines says it's up to the districts to decide the sex ed curriculum but that there aren't checks in place.
— The 21st (@21stShow) November 13, 2018
She says it's not likely the policy will change statewide.
Read more of her reporting here: https://t.co/4NueEHMWKb
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If you think our midterm elections were big news in the U.S., what about in Europe? Much of the world was also engrossed in last week’s election. And of course Europe and the U.K. have their own political news we’ve been following, as the details of Brexit continue to be hammered out.
Former Member of European Parliament Robert Evans joined us. He was a member for 15 years and also served as Chairman of the European Parliamentary Labor Party. He’s now a lecturer at Royal Holloway College of London University.
"So there will be the bizarre, almost unprecedented situation where the government have proposals, and nothing can get through. And then we could well be in a constitutional crisis, where we don’t know what will happen."
— The 21st (@21stShow) November 13, 2018
—Robert Evans, on Brexit