IFT Responds to Governor’s Budget Address: Young People in Our Classrooms Are Asking the Governor and General Assembly to Choose to Protect Illinois’ Families Instead of Billionaires’ Fortunes

Springfield, IL: In response to Governor Pritzker’s 8th budget address, and the day after hundreds of Illinois Federation of Teachers members rallied at the capitol, IFT Secretary- Treasurer Pankaj Sharma issued the following:

“Ask an educator if the budget does what is needed for our students and the answer will be ‘no.’ Any math teacher can look at the state’s budget and tell you, we need to tax the ultra-rich in Illinois to give children the schools they deserve from Pre-k to PhD, to make our state number one in education, and to take the burden off the backs of Illinois’ working families. And any history teacher will tell you now is the moment to do it without delay.

“The Governor and lawmakers have a choice in his ‘maintenance budget’ to maintain inequality and giveaways to billionaires or to help Illinois’ working families who are struggling to maintain under higher costs and fewer supports.

“The $6 billion that Illinois has promised but not delivered to its students is still less than the tax cut that President Trump put back into the bank accounts of the top 5% in our state. If we have to choose between taxing the ultra-rich or funding our students’ education, that’s an easy decision any day of the week.

“Each day that our Governor and members of the General Assembly fail to deliver valuable resources to students, educators, and their families, they are shortchanging our young people according to their own funding formula. It is another day where a student’s zip code - not state policy - determines whether they have what they need to succeed. 

“The schools students deserve have nurses, sports teams, music class, and smaller class sizes. Instead, another year of doing more of the same means buildings go uncleaned because districts cut money for custodians, children are asked to learn on empty stomachs because cafeterias cut hot lunches, and where counselor caseloads balloon, if schools have counselors at all. It means more layoffs at our universities and nearly half our high school graduates who go to four-year colleges leaving the state because higher education is more affordable elsewhere.

“Even without the ultra-rich getting record tax breaks from Trump, Illinois already makes working families pay higher tax rates than billionaires. How is the Governor responding in his eighth budget address? He’s proposing a free pass to his billionaire friends while telling working families to brace themselves. 

“Massachusetts showed that fixing our state’s priorities and protecting from federal cuts is possible. And it doesn’t take a complex equation. Massachusetts’ millionaire tax has generated $5.7 billion for schools, public transit, and infrastructure since 2023. And, millionaires didn’t flee the state because of the tax. In fact, more millionaires have moved to Massachusetts since implementation. More than 100 bills are being introduced across the country to make the wealthy pay their fair share. Illinois should be leading this movement. Our students deserve better than unkept promises or extended timetables.

“In our history classes, we don’t only read about the actions of aggressors and tyrants, but we study what enabled their rise and how the rest of the world responded. Today, our students are looking for a better response than containment. They want to see the adults in the room have a plan to keep them safe, to protect their rights, and to show in action and policy that a better way is possible, that Illinois can lead in a different way.

“We’re asking the Governor to join us in doing his part to support our school communities and universities. Every day we pour all we have into shielding students from the trauma they are living through, filling the funding gaps with extra granola bars in our desk drawers and spare coats in our closets, and examining history for lessons for how we can make it better. The good news is that history is not short on examples of heroic courage and visionary leadership. We just need the Governor and the General Assembly to take their place in what this moment is asking of them, to put our state’s children’s needs ahead of our state’s ultra-wealthy interests.”

Background

• The Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) law was enacted in 2017 and set 2027 as the deadline to reach 90% adequacy for all schools. Illinois is currently behind schedule and won't reach even this 90% goal until 2034 at the current funding pace.

• From pre‑K toPhD, Illinois is underfunding its students and communities by over $6 billion: $5 billion for K-12 schools and $1.4 billion for higher education.

• Bills such as HB5409 would require the state to fulfill its obligation to fund what are called “mandated categoricals,” (MCATs), programs and services the state requires at levels it does not fund, such as transportation for students with disabilities, special education services, nutrition, social work, and counseling, as well as meet the 2027 deadline set by the EBF law for adequate funding.

• Under the proposed budget, mandatory services would remain underfunded. The Governor is reportedly rejecting ISBE’s recommendation of $151 million and instead allotting only $51 million that would not cover the cost of maintaining these programs.

• SB13 and HB1581, the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act, calculates an adequacy target for each university based on its unique mission and student population and then distributes new state funds in a way that prioritizes universities furthest from adequacy. 

• Tax experts note that Illinois has one of the most unfair tax systems, where working families pay a greater share of their income than the ultra-wealthy.

• Illinois can follow a path similar to Massachusetts, where a millionaire tax has generated at least $5.7 billion in revenue since 2023 to pay for schools, public transit, and infrastructure. 

• More than 100 bills are being introduced across the country to recoup the tax giveaways in Trump’s big awful bill and shield states from the impact of the President’s tax cuts to essential services.

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