Chicago Tribune political reporter Jeremy Gorner joined Patrick Pfingsten this morning to talk about legislation on homeschooling, AI, health insurance for illegal immigrants and more.
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We've been talking about a big week at the Statehouse. Our friend Jeremy Garner, who covers the Statehouse for the Chicago Tribune, joins us out in the wind outside of the Statehouse this morning as he's being blocked by homeschool advocates from getting in the building. How are you, my friend? Good, good. How are you doing, Patrick? So what's going on with homeschooling, since that's going to be the topic of the day, I believe?

Yeah, so it's up in the House Education Policy Committee today, at least it's scheduled to so far. Presumably it's a go because there's big crowds coming in on the west end of the Capitol. Parents and young kids alike walking into the Capitol, into room 122B, which is where the

which is where the Education Policy Committee meets and where the bill is scheduled to be heard. And I know of no other high-profile bills in that 8 a.m. committee hearing today. So presumably that's got to be it, Patrick. I am such an old curmudgeon that I – so dating back to when I was on staff, so this is 10-plus years ago now, when there were the days when people would just –

fill the rotunda. I never wanted to leave my office. Just like, I'm not going to the floor. I don't want to deal with these people. Get them away from me. I'm an old curmudgeon, but certainly it's, it's, it's, it's, it's democracy in action. But this homeschool bill is, is the,

is kind of the unexpected fight of the, the, the spring. This, this bill by Tara Costa Howard from the suburbs that she argues essentially just says, we don't want to lose any kids that are, you know, out of the system. And we want to make sure that we know everybody's alive and safe and, and being kept track of, but right. But homeschool parents and homeschooling in Illinois is, is almost completely unregulated.

Right. They don't want any anybody to touch them. What's the what's the what's the what's the point here that they're trying to make?

Well, I mean, you know, opponents of the bill just think that it's on principle. I mean, anyone who's not part of the public school system, a system that is run by the government, doesn't feel like they have to adhere to the same regulations as students and parents who are part of the public school system. I will tell you one of the things that I heard from, you know, one homeschooling advocate as well as –

Because this bill would also affect private schools or non-public schools, as it says in the legislation. So the Catholic Conference, for example, is against this bill for the same reason. I mean, they feel like that there are some, you know, the state has some ability to oversee certain functions of private schools, but

Never, you know, spoke to the head of the Catholic conference who said never has he heard of that conversation drifting into giving personal information about students, you know, their name, address, home address, date of birth to their nearest public school district.

you know, as the bill says that that's never been part of the conversation before with state government officials. And also, and also what they're afraid of too, is our data breaches. I mean, you know, you,

You know, the opponents of the bill I spoke to are concerned about what happened for what we saw in the Chicago Public Schools where it was reported earlier this month about, you know, a massive data breach affecting thousands of Chicago Public School families. They're worried about, you know, okay, well, what if that happens to us too? Sure.

Jeremy Garner from the Chicago Tribune joins us here on 92.7 WMAY. You had a big piece this morning on AI and potential regulations. There are so many fingers to this. It's so complicated. How do lawmakers get a grip on, on one, something that's already taking such a big, big role in, in business and intact today and, and is going to keep evolving?

Well, that is what the challenge is, Patrick. It's like, how do they keep up? How do lawmakers keep up with this rapidly evolving technology without regulating it too much, basically? Certainly, policymakers see the advantages of AI. They see the potential that it has.

in assisting with medical diagnosis, assisting with a lot of learning functions, like virtual tutoring, for example, just to name a few. I mean, they certainly see the potential, but at the same time, they're trying to improve

They want AI to be improved so that there's no algorithmic bias, that AI isn't used in destructive ways that could discriminate against people, particularly employees in the workplace, for example. So they're trying to cast a balance between not regulating it too much where it halts technological advancement, while at the same time trying to...

put just enough regulation on it where it could stop, you know, the bad parts of it in its tracks. Did you cover the Buckner no-knock warrant bill yesterday? That seems like one that's going to be an interesting conversation. So this goes back to the Anjanette, I believe her name is, Anjanette Young incident in Chicago a few years ago where

She was essentially had her house raided by cops while she was standing there naked. I mean, it was an incredibly embarrassing moment and one that, you know, was a bad example of police violence.

you know, making a, making a bad move on a warrant when, when they had the wrong place. Uh, I know she sued over this. It's been a huge issue. Why do they believe ending no knock warrants completely is the right move? Uh,

Well, you know, it's been six years since the wrongful raid happened at Anjanette Young's home on Chicago's near west side. They've tried going through. Now they're trying to go through the state for some reason.

for some relief. They've tried to go through the city of Chicago for an ordinance. That hasn't happened yet. Anjanette Young firmly believes that this is... And she's right. She's not the only person to go through situations like these. I know that the CBS affiliate in Chicago broke a number of stories a couple of years ago about Chicago police engaging in some of these...

and other wrongful search warrants, you know, when they're pointing guns at children and so on and so forth. That's part of the regulation that's proposed in the bill. You know, and Anjanette Young was kind of the icing on the cake in that. During former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration, when Young had filed that lawsuit, they basically tried to halt the release of that infamous lawsuit

body camera video. So it's also matters of transparency. I mean, it's also ways the way that advocates see it's a way to, you know, for police to be more transparent when they're doing this kind of work, especially when they're basing search warrants and in many cases on intelligence that they gather from informants. So certainly that's something that they want to see regulated. We've seen it in other states where,

Florida has banned or limited no-knock warrants for a long time. And in Kentucky, of course, a couple of years ago, there was the horrible case of Breonna Taylor, who was killed during a search warrant, killed by police in Louisville. That prompted restrictions on

on no-knock warrants in Kentucky. So this isn't like an unprecedented thing that Anjanette Young is asking for. This is something that we've seen in legislation proposed across the country. I know under the Biden administration, this was also proposed as far as criminal justice reforms.

were proposed by Congress under Biden. But, you know, those proposals went nowhere. So this is the issue of no-knock warrants has become a national issue. It's not just an Illinois issue. And before we let you go, Jeremy Garner, the Trib had a big piece on efforts to...

Keep funding for the Medicaid-style health insurance for illegal immigrants that the governor is proposing to cut, which the governor has taken a lot of political flack for Republicans on. What kind of stressor is this going to be during budget negotiations, specifically between the governor and legislative leaders and progressives and, say, the Latino caucus?

It's going to be a big stressor, Patrick. I mean, I know that, you know, the governor, at least on February 19th, when he made his budget address, I'm sure that, you know, for at least a short while, he was breathing a sigh of relief because, you know, excluding that proposal from, you know, from what he wants to do with his budget, you know,

You know, as far as he saw it needed to be done, you know, to try to balance the budget. And that's a lot of money. But at the same time, you're going to see backlash from progressives on this, especially the Latino caucus. And I think one of the things to look for is

You know, it took three tries for Democrats to pass their full budget package last year. And the holdouts on those votes in May on the House floor were moderate Democrats. Well, moderate Democrats appear to be they're not completely satisfied with the governor's budget proposal, but they feel a lot better than for Greg.

They feel a lot better than progressives do, which could fight tooth and nail in this case, because in part because of programs like the immigrant health care program that they want to preserve. So those could be votes that the governor might find himself struggling for come May. If you didn't think a 430 in the morning vote on taxes was as stressful as it could get last May,

Just wait until we see where we're at in late May this year. It's going to be wild. So, Jeremy, get inside. Go find a seat. Enjoy yourself some committee fun this morning, and we'll talk to you again soon. All right. Thanks a lot, Pat.