Lightford overrides Rauner African-American Equal Pay Act veto

SPRINGFIELD – More than half a century since the Civil Rights Act became law, workers in the United States continue to earn different wages based on their race.

Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) is fighting for legislation that would prohibit wage discrimination against African-Americans under the Equal Pay Act.

 “Today, we made sure that wage equity continues to be a priority in Illinois,” Lightford said.

According to a 2017 Federal Reserve study, black men and women earn persistently lower wages compared to their white counterparts and this wage gap cannot be adequately explained by differences in education, age, job type or location.

That gap appears to be expanding rather than contracting. In 1979, the average black man in the United States earned about 80 percent compared to the average white man, by 2016 that gap had grown to 70 percent. The same is true for black women, who in 1979 earned about 95 percent compared to white women, but by 2016 earned only 82 percent of wages paid to white women on average.

House Bill 4743 prohibits employers from paying wages to an African-American employee at a rate less than the rate paid to an employee who is not African-American for the same or substantially similar work.

Governor Rauner’s veto was overridden in the Senate with a vote of 49-1, and is now under effect.

Lightford named to education transition committee

CHICAGO - Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) was named to the education transition committee for governor-elect JB Pritzker during a news conference held at Genevieve Melody STEM Elementary in Chicago.

The 35-member Educational Success Committee is the seventh of several working groups of the transition made up of experts who will advise the new administration.

“Educating our children is the most important function of government. What our children will accomplish and how much of their potential will come to fruition starts right in our classrooms. I am excited to continue my work as a strong advocate for education, and play a role in how this administration plans to tackle the issues facing our education system,” Lightford said.

Among those named to the committee were Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO of Chicago Public Schools; Dr. Michael Amiridis, Chancellor, University of Illinois at Chicago; Ginger Ostro, Executive Director, Advance Illinois; Kevin O'Mara, Professor, Concordia University; Juan Salgado, Chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago; Mimi Rodman, Executive Director, Stand for Children Illinois; teachers’ union leaders; university administrators; state lawmakers; members of child advocacy organizations; and others.

CPS Student & Parent Scholarship Information Session

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CPS Seniors:

Do you have a 3.0+ GPA (weighted or unweighted)? Do you have an ACT score of 17+ or an SAT score of 910+?
Then YOU are invited to attend the 2018 Student & Parent Scholarship Information Session on Thursday, November 29th.
Click here to register; space is limited!

Scholarship Alert Workbook:

The Scholarship Alert Workbook is a live googledoc that we use to organize scholarship deadlines per month. This year CPS has added an Elementary Scholarships tab in addition to the monthly deadline tabs. This helps all stakeholders understand what opportunities are due each month. The links also direct you to the Academic Works postings.

CPS Scholarships Google Calendar:

CPS has created a CPS Scholarships Google Calendar that consists of the open and closign dates for each scholarship that we update in our system. CPS also have postsecondary and scholarship activities on this calendar as well. It's public and students and schools have already begun using it. This will help with application completion.

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Accounting Internship Preperation Program

The Illinois CPA Society is seeking minority college students to apply for the Mary T. Washington Wylie Internship Preparation Program. This highly competitive program helps prepare minority students interested in the CPA profession for entry-level accounting positions through exposure of the profession, access to training, resources and mentors. At the end of the program, participating firms will interview the students for a variety of paid internship opportunities.

Apply here: https://www.icpas.org/being-a-cpa/be-a-cpa/programs-events/MTWWProgram