Following a media firestorm prompted by outcry from parents and students at schools in Chicago’s Noble Street Charter Network, Illinois legislators are now considering a bill that would prohibit schools from levying fees for student misbehavior, the Huffington Post reports. The schools made headlines in February after allegedly collecting nearly $390,000 in disciplinary fines over three years from low-income students for minor infractions like chewing gum or failing to make eye contact with teachers. A report by the Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) and Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) found the fines discriminate against students and “surreptitiously raises the cost of public education.” Illinois State Senator Willie Delgado proposed an amendment to an existing schools bill that would ban the practice, saying “a charter school may not impose a fine or other financial penalty on a student as a disciplinary measure.”
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