The Illinois primary election is just around the corner! In preparation for the election, the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education has interviewed many candidates and made recommendations for those who support public education and the agenda of the Illinois Education Association. After many interviews and deliberation, the IEA has recommended JB Pritzker for governor and Kwame Raoul for attorney general in the 2018 democratic primary election. Click on the picture above to learn more about the IEA’s Recommendation for JB.

The IEA makes recommendations during elections to guide members in supporting candidates who support our profession, and most importantly, our students. Additionally, the IEA has created a voter guide to assist members in gathering information about all recommended candidates in state races. Use the IEA Voter guide (linked below) to find a complete list of the IEA recommended candidates in your district.

And most importantly, don’t forget to get out an VOTE! Your voice matters!

Last week the tragic Parkland, Florida shooting took place, devastating the country. Being the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook, it truly was a call to action for many, as NEA President stated, 

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“While our thoughts and prayers are with Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, educators and their families, we know that we, as country, need to do more to end these senseless shootings. As educators, our foremost priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our students. Our focus now is on supporting the educators, students and their families in the Broward County community today and in the future. We all have a responsibility to create safe schools and communities. As a state and a country, we can and must do more to ensure that everyone who walks through our school doors — educator, student, parent or community member — is safe and free from violence.”

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The shooting is sparking student and educator marches, walk-outs, and protests across the country. Our hearts are with the Parkland community, as we work to provide safe schools for our students and teachers.

Check out the link below to learn how to support the Parkland community and find resources on how to talk to your students about school shootings.

On December 19th, 2017 Congress approved a tax giveaway that benefited the wealthy on behalf of working families and students. This bill not only added $1 trillion to the national debt but, it greatly benefited the wealthy by essentially adding another voucher program. This program would allow the wealthy to set aside money solely for expenses relating to private schools.

In addition, congress will cause 13 million Americans to be uninsured due to the partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This tax deduction causes a major concern in public education funding. Specifically affecting more than 130,000 jobs in education.

Our NEA president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, shared a heartfelt yet powerful statement regarding this bill. She concludes with this, “It is deeply disappointing that too many members of Congress chose to stand with corporate special interests and the wealthy, instead of with working families and students. The choice they made today was the wrong one for our nation and will be disastrous for our students." As future educators, we must remain vigilant and keep our voices heard!

Traumatic news has become frequent and unfortunately more common in our schools. Hearing about and being swept up in school shootings and other violent acts is terrifying not only for our students and educators, but for the community as a whole. In times like these, it is extremely difficult to focus only on academics, when so much else is consuming our minds. 

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On November 15, 2017, our NEA President Lily Eskelsen García issued the following statement in reaction to the horrific shooting in Northern California, which was targeted to students and educators at Rancho Tehama Elementary School:

“We pray for the victims of this latest tragedy in Tehama County, California, and the schoolchildren and adults shot by another out-of-control man who could spray bullets through a classroom and down the street with a rapid-fire weapon. We’re grateful to the educators who heroically protected their students in this rural school, the heroes in a Texas church, and those at a Las Vegas concert. But heroes can’t prevent the next tragedy. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Act to keep dangerous weapons away from dangerous people.”

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As future educators, we must stand strong together and be ready to protect and help our future students through these difficult times. We must fight to stop these violent and traumatic events. Luckily, as IEA and NEA members, we are provided with a supportive community to help with this fight, as well as resources to guide us in our next steps. 

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Read more on the current state of school violence, find crisis resources, and learn more by clicking on the link below!

The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) was initially introduced in 2001 with the intention of providing a legal pathway to immigrant children in the United States. This is where the term “dreamers” originated from. Asa  result of its defeat, the DREAM Act has been continuously reintroduced to Congress without success. Most recently, in the summer of 2017, the Act was brought forth in Congress by South Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham (R), and Illinois senator, Dick Durbin (D), in a bipartisan attempt to protect the children who were enrolled in the DACA program.

The latest version of the Act would allow three steps to achieving United States citizenship through higher education, military, or employment. The only qualifications is that the individual must have entered the United States as a minor and have been continuously living in the United States for at least four years before the Act is implemented. The NEA is in support of this DREAM Act, as it provides refuge for the victims of DACA and more opportunities for these marginalized individuals than other proposed pieces of legislation.

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Now it’s your turn...TAKE ACTION NOW! Click below to write a postcard to your representatives to tell them to support the DREAM Act!

Have you heard in the news recently that Illinois schools were in the middle of a budget stalemate because of our state legislators and state budget? Are you curious how schools are funded in Illinois? Paying for public education and how state laws are passed is one example of how politics affects our jobs as teachers.

Public education is paid for by a combination of local property taxes, money from the state of Illinois, and money from our federal government.  Decisions made by our representatives in both our state capitol, and Washington DC impact how much is spent on public schools. The largest percentage of school funding is generated locally.  Because local areas generate a wide difference in amount of local property taxes, the amount of money spent on schools in Illinois has historically depended on where you live.  Areas that generate more property tax wealth spend more on their local schools.

In an attempt to decrease the disparity, state legislators proposed changing the formula for how the state money is distributed in an attempt to make up some of the difference.  Again the difference is due to the local contribution.  Many groups have been advocating for a long time that this is not fair to students. Changing the state formula does not impact local districts spending more or less money.  In other words, those districts that generate more are still able to spend it on how schools how they wish.

The changed state school formula will impact the districts in which you live and teach.  In the past, schools received state dollars called general state aid and other grants.  Now state money is distributed to schools using evidence based criteria such as districts with a higher concentration of children living in poverty will receive more state money to fund their schools.

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Learn more by clicking the link below!

We had a great time together at Building Blocks in Springfield. The Political Action presentation touched on many sources that are listed below. These are great resources to educate yourself and take back to your chapter to use in regular meetings.

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Look up voting registration status: https://ova.elections.il.gov/RegistrationLookup.aspx

NEA Student ProgramVideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rq0hxcZSSc

Degrees not Debt PDF: https://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Degrees_Student_Debt__Guide_FINAL.pdf

Degrees not Debt Video: http://www.elections.state.il.us/downloads/votinginformation/pdf/r-19.pdf

Compare Presidential Candidates: http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/president-candidates-trump-clinton-education.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB

Illinois Voter Registration Application: http://www.elections.state.il.us/downloads/votinginformation/pdf/r-19.pdf

More information about ESSA: http://neatoday.org/2015/12/09/every-student-succeeds-act/

Degrees Not Debt Flyer: https://www.nea.org/assets/docs/DND_5_Steps_Handout.pdf

Presidential Candidate Record: http://www.strongpublicschools.org/candidate-education-records

Video clip of Hillary Clinton's DNC Speech: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl3vtwAQNos

Video clip of Donald Trump's RNC Speech: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/highlights-from-trump-s-rnc-speech-730126404000

This weekend is the IEASP Spring Conference, Jump, Jive, and Teach! Along with amazing professional development and opportunities for community outreach, attendees will have another chance to let our lawmakers know that education needs to be a priority. More and more schools are being affected by the continued absence of a state budget and some are in dire circumstances. Come find the political action table at the Spring Conference to have your political voice be heard by our legislators!

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More information on the budget crisis can be found by clicking below. 

Hey everyone! Your State Executive Team hopes you had a great holiday season and your semester is starting off well! We had a great time this weekend with Advisory Board and we hoped you learned a lot about our upcoming primary elections. Don't forget to tell your chapters about February 16th, the last day to register to vote, or March 15th, the day to get out and vote.

For this post, we'd like to shift gears and tell you all about an important piece of legislation that is trying to get through our state government concerning MAP grants. At our Fall Conference, we had you all sign postcards to Governor Rauner asking him to please allow funding for MAP grants to be passed through Congress so that our students can stay in higher education. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be listening to us.

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​Although Congress has pushed through a bill that would provide for $373 million, $24 million less than what was already proposed and vetoed by Rauner, Rauner still insists he will veto SB 2043.

As College Democrats of Illinois President Kevin Cheng notes, "Tens of thousands of students across Illinois rely on MAP grants to pursue their dreams and better their communities through education. Students have enough stress with classes starting up and exams on the horizon. MAP grant funding should not and does not have to be another source of worry."

IEA will keep an eye out for SB 2043 and make sure we can let our voices be heard to President Rauner if he continues to threaten its veto.

The House of Representatives has authorized the S. 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a bipartisan and bicameral bill to reauthorize the federal education law known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act!

“For the first time since No Child Left Behind was enacted nearly 14 years ago, ESSA empowers educators as trusted professionals to make school and classroom decisions while keeping the focus on students most in need. The bill also reduces the amount of standardized testing in schools and, most importantly, decouples high-stakes decision-making and statewide standardized tests so that so students have more time to learn and teachers have more time to teach. Last, ESSA begins to close the opportunity gaps for students by providing a new accountability system that includes an ‘opportunity dashboard’ with — for the first time — indicators of school success and student support."

This weekend is the IEASP Fall Conference! Your Political Activists are so excited to give you the opportunity to truly "Make an Impression."

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​At this year’s IEASP Fall Conference, you will be able to “Make An Impression” in Political Action by donating to the NEA PAC fund! PAC stands for Political Action Committee, and essentially this fund serves to support issues and candidates that are champions of public education. Because no money from our dues goes to the PAC fund, we will be giving you all the opportunity to donate at our Political Action table at the Fall Conference. The theme will be “Change for Change,” so bring your spare change to the conference to support public education!

There's a lot of talk about money in politics these days with things like the Supreme Court decision called Citizens United which allows corporations and labor unions to spend as much money as they want on advertisements and other avenues of persuasion in support of their desired political candidates. This decision is controversial because it allows independent groups to fund campaigns without identifying the funding source. One subject that is not nearly addressed enough is the issue of who the Koch Brothers are and why we should care as future teachers.

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The Koch Family is a massively wealthy family that has used their vast wealth to influence politics in ways that are favorable for them. Koch Industries is the second largest privately held corporation in our nation. This family has made it their business to become more and more connected with powerful conservatives in U.S. politics including Supreme Court Justices, high ranking congressmen and more. These personal connections lead to discussions about monetary investment in politics. Thus, because of laws like Citizens United, Koch Industries can use their vast wealth to support conservative politics since that's what's most likely to suit their own needs. Because their funds are unlimited, so is their political influence. One could even argue that because the conservative politicians know they have the support of the Koch Brothers, which will in all likelihood help them be re-elected, they might be inclined to act in a way that will suit the needs of the Koch Brothers. Yikes! Koch Industries has a huge amount of influence in our political system, with our political pundits (experts), and also with the media.

We, as citizens in a democracy, need to stay vigilant when it comes to money in politics. We need to understand its influence and remember that our own politicians might only be saying something because corporations or other groups with their own interests have supported them with vast finances. Candidates and representatives have the responsibility of representing all constituents, not only those that are able to contribute to their campaigns.

There is another way to take this information though. Whether we like it or not, money is important in politics. This is why the IEA has things like IPACE (Illinois Political Action Committee for Education), a fund for supporting public education in politics. The goal of the IPACE is to channel "the force of thousands of organized education employees into many constructive relationships with candidates and elected representatives." IPACE is not affiliated with any political party and only supports political efforts of public education in Illinois. This means no IPACE money is contributed to the presidential campaigns, national elections or political efforts. IPACE also supports efforts to get IEA members more politically involved. IPACE listens to IEA members like us about political issues and candidates we think would best represent our views to support public education. IPACE has endorsed candidates from both parties only after a meeting in which IEA members interview the candidates. If you would like to attend one of these recommendation meetings, please contact one of your state officers whose contact information is on this website!

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For more information on the Koch brothers, we highly recommend checking out both the YouTube video (linked below) and the documentary Koch Brothers Exposed. 

The NEA board has officially recommended Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Presidential Nominee.

"Hillary Clinton has always been on the right side of the key education issues. She supports reducing the role of standardized tests. She believes in equal opportunity for all students, regardless of their ZIP code. She opposes school vouchers and supports making college more affordable." IEA president, Cinda Klickna, says.

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​Candidates are selected based off of completing a questionnaire and interviewing with NEA President, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, in person. This video is recorded and made available to all NEA members as well. The NEA questionnaire was available to all viable candidates in all parties. Those who filled it out include Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders.