Vallas: Illinois returning to soft bigotry of low expectations
Illinois students are not learning, but instead of boosting the quality of education state leaders are trying to lower standards so scores don’t look as bad. Blame it on the Chicago Teachers Union and other teachers unions pushing for less accountability.
Illinois education leaders are considering lowering the bar for student “proficiency” on standardized tests, arguing current benchmarks are too high and fail to reflect students’ college and career readiness.
This proposal is just the latest step to mask the abysmal academic performance of public schools by lowering standards and downplaying the significance of test scores. Teachers unions and their political allies do not want accountability. The easiest way to hide failure is to redefine success.
Despite education spending from federal, state and local funds increasing dramatically in Illinois – from $35 billion in 2019 to $44 billion in 2024 – student achievement continues to decline. Today, fewer Illinois students are proficient in reading and math than 10 years ago. The most recent state and National Assessment of Educational Progress scores are dismal. Yet Gov. J.B. Pritzker describes Illinois’ performance as an “inspiring success.”
Only in Illinois – where just one-third of students are proficient in reading and math – could such performance inspire anything other than despair. And the picture looks even worse when one considers how much the state spends.
Since 2007, Illinois’ per-student spending has doubled – the third-highest increase in the country. Proficiency testing is essential for evaluating instructional quality, student needs and academic progress. Abandoning it revives what President George W. Bush once called “the soft bigotry of low expectations” – for both students and teachers.
Chicago Public Schools is already moving in that direction. The district scrapped its school ranking system and de-emphasized test scores in favor of vague metrics such as social and emotional development.
At the same time, CPS is dismantling its magnet school system, and ending school performance rankings. This is part of a broader campaign to stop tracking academic disparities and to shield underperforming schools. Although test scores must still be reported under state law, those results no longer factor into CPS’s internal evaluations.
The Chicago Teachers Union has long opposed standardized testing. In August 2024, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates dismissed standardized tests as relics of “white supremacy.” CPS has since replaced its School Quality Rating Policy with one that largely ignores academic outcomes.
Teaching standards are also being undermined. In 2021 – following plummeting student performance, CTU walkouts, and months of forced remote learning – 100% of CPS teachers were rated “excellent” or “proficient.”
Now, the CTU is demanding that tenured teachers rated “excellent” or “proficient” only be reviewed every three years, and reducing required classroom observations from three to two per cycle, with a third only if both parties agree.
It’s clear teachers unions and their political allies want to return to a system where inflated grades and social promotion conceal student failure and shield schools and teachers from accountability. For some union leaders, who weaponize accusations of racism to block reform, this erosion of standards is not about equity – it’s a retreat to the soft bigotry of low expectations.
As standards decline, so does the quality of public education. Many families have had enough. In the past decade, CPS enrollment has dropped by 18%. The number of Black students in CPS has dropped 29%. Even many CTU members appear to have lost faith in the system – over 30% send their own children to private schools.
But why should the union worry? Even as CPS graduates students who can barely read or do basic math, there are no consequences. The district receives 56% of all property tax revenue from Chicago residents regardless of enrollment. And the state’s funding formula protects high-poverty districts such as CPS from financial losses because of declining enrollment.
Meanwhile, the state legislature refused to renew the Invest in Kids private school scholarship program. Combined with the CTU’s campaign to dismantle charter and magnet schools, this is effectively erasing alternatives to public schools. The abolishment of the Illinois State Charter School Commission has also allowed the CTU to pressure the district to cap both the number of charter schools and their enrollment.
While Illinois regresses, other states are embracing reform – adopting phonics-based reading instruction, ending social promotion and expanding school choice. Today, 35 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico offer private school choice. Since 2023, 18 states have created or expanded such programs. Every state bordering Illinois now supports private school choice and public charter schools.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep flaws in the traditional public education system. It revealed how unprepared schools were to adapt – and how union leaders prioritized politics over children.
Today, as public schools continue to lose students and public trust, leaders such as Pritzker are not just tolerating failure – they are celebrating it. Instead of pushing for accountability, high standards and greater educational opportunity, they are covering up failure and strengthening the destructive monopoly of teachers unions – all while calling it progress.