Illinois’ fiscal year 2021 budget is larger than 2020’s, yet spending on education lost ground without an adjustment for inflation.
COVID-19 has forced classes to close, but children’s educations can continue with some creativity and a wealth of free resources for online learning at home.
Illinois could put $708 million more toward classrooms or property tax relief if it reduced school district bureaucracy to national average.
Illinoisans pay large sums for public education, yet a large portion of the money goes to Illinois’ bloated school district bureaucracy that diverts resources away from the classroom. Through smart, strategic reforms, Illinoisans can better prepare their youth for the future as well as provide property tax relief.
Lowering the compulsory age to attend school from 6 to 5 would tie Illinois for the lowest compulsory attendance age in the nation.
The Illinois House of Representatives passed the Classrooms First Act by a unanimous vote March 28. If it becomes law, students, teachers and taxpayers will benefit.
The Pritzker administration’s first budget proposes phasing out a school choice program for disadvantaged families. Low-income families loved the program. Public teachers’ unions decried it.
NEA and AFT racked up millions of dollars in travel and catering expenses. Their reporting documents don’t always explain the intent, including why a cruise line received union money.
Recent federal filings by Illinois teachers’ unions show as little as 13 cents of every dollar was spent for “representational activities” – which is supposed to be the central purpose of the unions.
Illinois public school educators are charged hundreds of dollars in union dues each year – but the state and national affiliates don’t send much money back to the locals. Most money flows to Chicago, or out of state.
Following an investigation into allegations of “pay padding,” among other offenses, Calumet school district board members dismissed Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent less than a week before retirement.
Lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto of a 2017 bill mandating cursive instruction in all public elementary schools in Illinois. That measure becomes law this year.
Despite that booming demand, there are political efforts afoot to crush the scholarship program.
A bill in the Illinois Senate could axe the state’s first-ever tax credit scholarship program.