East Central Reporter

Illinois Parents' Rights in Education members are saluting state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) for seeking answers they haven’t been able to get.

“Thank you, Senator. Local school boards exists for a reason,” the group posted on Facebook after Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) officials threatened to sanction school districts over mask mandates.

“The Illinois State Board of Education has made threats against one of the school districts I represent due to the decisions made by the locally elected school board, which is charged with making these decisions, and when I read the letter, I took that personally,” Bailey said in a letter recently fired off to ISBE Chief Education Officer Dr. Ernesto Matias. “Having served 17 years on the North Clay School Board and as a state legislator, I know the authority to make this decision is currently at the local level and should remain at the local level.”

Bailey said such tactics have become too common in Springfield under the Pritzker administration, especially when it comes to the administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

“They keep making threats and trying to tell local people how they must live and conduct business,” he said. “We have local school boards for a reason, so they make the best decisions for their local kids. These tyrannical policies and threats have no business in this conversation. They are no longer following the science; they are only pushing an agenda to take away control from local elected bodies.”

Bailey said one example of that is the way the administration has kept its mask mandate in place past its point of usefulness.

“It’s past time to end the mask mandates on our kids,” he said. “There is no science behind this, only politics. Their mental health, their education, and their future is at risk due to special interests and big government bureaucrats who appear to be focusing more on controlling and indoctrinating kids than educating them.”