Public Act 93-0406

SB890 Enrolled                       LRB093 10614 NHT 10900 b

    AN ACT concerning education.

    Be it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:

    Section 5.   The  School  Code  is  amended  by  changing
Section 27-21 as follows:

    (105 ILCS 5/27-21) (from Ch. 122, par. 27-21)
    Sec.  27-21.   History  of  United States. History of the
United States shall be taught in all public  schools  and  in
all other educational institutions in this State supported or
maintained,  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  public  funds. The
teaching of history shall have as one of its  objectives  the
imparting to pupils of a comprehensive idea of our democratic
form   of   government  and  the  principles  for  which  our
government stands as regards  other  nations,  including  the
studying  of  the  place  of  our  government  in  world-wide
movements  and  the  leaders  thereof, with particular stress
upon the basic principles and ideals  of  our  representative
form  of  government. The teaching of history shall include a
study of the role and contributions of African Americans  and
other  ethnic  groups including but not restricted to Polish,
Lithuanian,  German,  Hungarian,  Irish,  Bohemian,  Russian,
Albanian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, French,  Scots,  Hispanics,
Asian  Americans,  etc.,  in  the history of this country and
this State. The teaching of  history  also  shall  include  a
study  of the role of labor unions and their interaction with
government in achieving the goals of a mixed free  enterprise
system.   No  pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade
of any public school unless he has received such  instruction
in  the  history  of  the United States and gives evidence of
having a comprehensive knowledge thereof.
(Source: P.A. 92-27, eff. 7-1-01.)
    Section 99. Effective date.  This  Act  takes  effect  on
January 1, 2004.