“Babies can’t wait!” was one of the chants heard throughout the Illinois State Capitol building’s rotunda on the afternoon of May 7, when over 250 Illinois mothers and children – 18 from Chicago’s West Side – gathered for a state-wide lobby day in Springfield.
The mothers are a part of the statewide membership program POWER-PAC IL, which stands for Parents Organized to Win, Educate, and Renew – Policy Action Council. POWER-PAC IL is led by parents who are trained by Community Organizing and Family Issues, a Chicago-based organization that empowers parents to get involved in civic issues.
For over 20 years, the group has journeyed to Springfield in May for Moms on a Mission, advocating for children’s and family rights at the Illinois capitol.
“We do it every Wednesday before Mother’s Day,” said Sherita Hamlin, a five-year POWER-PAC IL member from the West Side. This was her first trip to Springfield with the group, whose aim is “getting the information out there to the people that’s in power to start making these changes,” Hamlin said.
Last year, the state senate created a resolution that declared May 8, 2024 Moms on a Mission Day.
Karen Lynn Morton, also a part of POWER-PAC IL’s West Side branch, said she attends Moms on a Mission to advocate for “anything and everything that surrounds and will affect our young people. Budget increases for early learning and early intervention for our babies and their education is always something I’m going to fight hard for,” she said. “If our babies aren’t getting what they need, they’re already starting behind. There should be no child in the United States of America starting at a deficit.”
This year, over 250 POWER-PAC IL members traveled to Springfield to ask support for their budget and legislative priorities.
Budget priorities include:
- Adopting Illinois Revenue Alliance solutions, which focus on donations from wealthy corporations and people, to raise $6 billion in state revenue and fund the implementation of POWER-PAC IL’s recommended legislation
- Protecting the state’s Health Benefit for Immigrant Adults, which provides health coverage to about 33,000 people ages 42 to 64 in Illinois who don’t qualify for Medicaid because of their immigration status
- Increasing contribution to Early Intervention services, which help children under age 3 with developmental challenges, by $60 million to pay more providers to offer services that are in high demand
- Fully funding public schools with $2.5 billion by 2027
“That’s one of the things that I was really excited about trying to speak with someone about fully funding schools because I still have children in school,” said Hamlin, a mother of five. “They’re telling me, ‘Mom, do you know what we had for lunch today?’ Just looking at some of that, it’s like, ‘oh wow.’”
POWER-PAC-IL’s legislative priorities include:
- Senate Bill 753 – Increase the Illinois Child Tax Credit, which provides money for each child to guardians who qualify, and expand eligibility to families with no income
- Senate Bill 1555 – Create a state subcommittee that focuses on preschool special education
- Senate Bill 1519 – End police issuing students tickets as discipline in schools
- House Bill 3247 – Protect immigrant children from immigration enforcement in schools and their right to have a free and public education
Lobby day
Buses across the state started picking up POWER-PAC IL members before 6 a.m. on May 7. After eating lunch and rallying in the capitol – a first for the annual POWER-PAC IL trip – members broke off into groups and found when and where house and senate sessions were to meet with at least three legislators each.
“This year was very busy with Springfield in committee meetings,” Morton said. One of her assigned legislators was Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, who was in an executive committee meeting all day. Morton said her group briefly ran into State Senator Mike Simmons of the 7th District, which covers Chicago’s Uptown and Rogers Park neighborhoods.
While neither Hamlin nor Morton got significant facetime with legislators, they left information with their assistants and scheduled a future time to talk. Regardless of the lack of one-on-one time, Morton said the day felt productive because of the conversations she had with other groups visiting the capital to lobby.
“Yes, we have our targeted senators and representatives, but anybody that you run into, we want our message to get into their hands and ears,” Morton said. “I know that we grabbed attention because several people stopped me,” asking what the hundreds of people dressed in blue shirts were advocating for.
Hamlin said she still felt accomplished as she rode the bus back to Chicago at the end of the day.
“We still called [to] people in passing, and we were still able to get the information out about what we were there for,” Hamlin said. She added that her group spoke with a woman in the elevator about stopping the ticketing of students across the state for discipline infractions.
“We wanted to increase the knowledge about policing in schools, creating safe schools,” Hamlin said. “There’s a lot of people that have no idea what’s really going on.”
In past years, POWER-PAC IL has gotten more facetime with legislators, and successfully lobbied for legislation that was later passed.
For example, POWER-PAC IL went to Springfield to advocate for Senate Bill 100, which, when it was passed in 2015, amended the state school code. Morton said it introduced restorative justice practices in schools, as it changed student discipline policies and created a “memoranda of understanding with local law enforcement agencies that clearly defined law enforcement’s role in schools,” the bill says.
“We really lobbied hard for that one,” Morton said. She added that POWER-PAC IL also lobbied for the creation of an elected school board in Chicago. The first election occurred last November.
Many POWER-PAC IL members brought along younger family members for this year’s lobby day.
Morton was accompanied by her two great nieces in middle school and a high-school aged niece. She said that, though they didn’t get as much face time with legislators (they met State Senator Kimberly Lightford last year) they were still engaged.
“They loved learning about the process of legislation,” Morton said.
Hamlin brought her sons with her to Springfield on May 7, one of whom is president of his school’s Model U.N. club and came along to see who Illinoisans talk to in order to pass bills.
“This is how you fight for what’s needed in your community. My children were excited,” Hamlin said. “It’s a way to empower our children to let them know their voices are important as well. What’s a better way for us to let [legislators] know what’s happening in the schools than for them to hear from the kids themselves?”