IFT: Mandates in Education Matter, the Governor Should Start with Complying with the Evidence-Based Formula and Mandated Support for Special Education, Meals, and Transportation

SPRINGFIELD, IL - In response to the Governor pushing forward a cell phone ban in Illinois schools, Illinois Federation of Teachers Executive Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm issued the following statement raising questions regarding the new reality of Illinoisans facing federal occupation and the existing funding mandates that the Governor ignored in his eighth budget proposal presented earlier this week:

“Governor JB Pritzker is suggesting Illinois mandate what happens with students’ phones during the school day but he is ignoring his own legal mandates governing what happens with students in special education, student breakfast and lunches, and to fully fund all of our public schools. The state of Illinois owes its students $6 billion dollars for pre-K to PhD, and that is where the Governor should start.

“Schools already have the authority to set cell phone policies, but what they cannot do is fund themselves or the cellphone lockers or pockets that will be required to enforce this unfunded mandate. Only the Governor can ultimately meet the state’s funding obligation.

“Teachers know cell phones can be distracting – we manage that every single day. And, in communities living with real fear about ICE and family safety, phones are also lifelines. We saw that in Chicago, Aurora, Franklin Park, and anywhere federal agents have spread their terror. In times like that, communication is not theoretical. It is about safety.

“What educators will tell you is that creating more unfunded mandates while failing to fund the ones already on the books – special education, nutritional supports for hungry children, and school transportation – is out of order. As federal school funding has vanished and the White House demands governors drain public schools even more by implementing Trump’s national voucher program, the state is failing to step up, appropriating just $5 million more toward what amounts to a $5 billion gap in its own evidence-based funding formula. Students already feel that gap in the form of larger class sizes, buildings that go uncleaned, cuts to crossing guards, counselors overwhelmed with caseloads - if they have counselors at all - and less access to honors, sports, music, and extracurriculars from Rochester to Chicago to Rockford and across the state.

“If mandates matter, the Governor should start with his own. If he put this same energy into meeting the school funding law, our students would be far better served and schools would have cell phone lockers already.”

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The Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) represents 105,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in PreK-12 school districts throughout Illinois, faculty and staff at Illinois’ community colleges and universities, public employees under every statewide elected constitutional officer, and retirees.