Kankakee Times

State Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) agrees with a bill introduced by colleague Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) that urges lawmakers to review current school board data for reporting mandates with the aim of simplifying the entire process.

“I’ll present Rep. Keicher’s bill,” Morrison recently told members of the House Elementary & Secondary Education: Administration, Licensing & Charter School Committee during a recent hearing.

A formal synopsis of House Resolution 0014 describes it as “urging the Illinois State Board of Education to review existing data reporting mandates, both State and federal, in an effort to streamline the reporting system and remove redundant data collection.”

Co-sponsored by House Reps. Tom Bennett (R-Gibson City), Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) and Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis), the bill now sits in the Secondary & Education Committee.

Now in his third-year of representing the 70th District, Keicher also serves on the House’s Higher Education Committee, along with the Agriculture & Conservation, Appropriations-Higher Education, Human Services, Mental Health, Veterans’ Affairs and State Government Administration committees.

His 70th District includes portions of Boone, DeKalb and Kane Counties.

Keicher first took office in 2018, when he was sworn in to complete the unexpired term of former Rep. Bob Pritchard. As a longtime small business owner in the area, Keicher has also sat on several local boards and held positions with the Sycamore Chamber of Commerce, the Sycamore Public Library, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) of Illinois and the Sycamore Rotary Club.