More than 400 IFT Members Rally in Springfield to Counter Trump Cuts, Push for Promised but Still Undelivered Funding for Education and Public Services
- IFT
- 6 hours ago
- 7 min read
SPRINGFIELD, IL - More than 400 educators and state worker members of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, led by their newly elected officers, rallied and lobbied at the Capitol today to demand the Governor and Illinois General Assembly take urgent action to tax the rich during the fall veto session and deliver on promised funds for school districts increasingly threatened by Trump’s cuts.
During the press conference, IFT officers and members urged Governor JB Pritzker and lawmakers to counter Trump’s federal funding cuts with strong state investment that delivers for students and communities. They called to fix Illinois' backwards tax system that makes working people pay more than billionaires and to close costly tax breaks for tech companies and the ultra wealthy, arguing that Illinois can protect students, seniors, and working families by reinvesting in public schools, universities and colleges, transit, and health care.
"The people that make up the Illinois Federation of Teachers are the people who teach your children in early childhood, people who teach your children when they are seniors in high school, people who teach your children in higher education, who are deeply invested in the stability and the sustainability of our state,” explained IFT and CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. “We have people standing here today, state workers who are working in the Attorney General's office that are enabling the attorneys of the great state of Illinois to fight for our democracy. We are at a precipice. We got to tax the rich. Not because we just think they're not doing enough. It's because we do our fair share and then some, and we need a little more help. It's fair, and that's what teachers teach: fairness."
Various members highlighted the growing strain on local school districts, colleges, and state services. At the pre-K-12 level, 286 districts are operating at 76 percent or less of the adequate funding level. Many are struggling to meet legal requirements for special education, keep class sizes manageable, and maintain safe and welcoming buildings. According to Cahokia teacher and president of Cahokia Federation of Teachers Local 1272 where schools are funded only at 81%, Wendy Lochmann, "I have taught in Cahokia where a shrinking tax base means students depend on state and federal funding for essential services, staffing, and meals. The district struggles to attract and keep staff, causing instability across all grades and subjects. While the reasons behind the turnover are complex, the ways lawmakers can help are simple: by fully funding our schools. The results would be dramatic: smaller class sizes, robust special education services, affordable college tuition, and stable pensions to attract the next generation of educators."
“We are in a crisis. In case you did not know, the government is shut down and Trump is only going to get worse. So we need our Illinois lawmakers to deliver on the promise of the funds. They have already promised us those funds, but they have not delivered those funds to us, so we are here to demand them,” shared Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, IFT Executive Vice President and President of the Southwest Area Council. “It does not matter if you live in Cahokia. It does not matter if you live in West Frankfort, East St. Louis, West Chicago, Chicago, the suburbs. Illinois families deserve better. Illinois can do better, and the only way we're going to make that happen is to ask our Illinois lawmakers to be leaders to make us number one in education. The only way to do that is by investing in our schools from pre-K through university.”
A seismic reduction in state funding for higher education where universities and colleges are receiving less public support than they did twenty years ago is putting undue strain on campuses and working families struggling to afford sending their children to pursue their degree. It’s currently made worse by the Governor’s withholding of 2 percent, roughly 25 million dollars, in discretionary funding already approved in this year’s state budget.
For example, Illinois State University would receive about 1.6 million dollars if these funds were released. "What hurts the most about these cuts,” said Sharon Dubosky, the Greenhouse Manager in the Department of Biological Sciences at Eastern Illinois University and member of the University of Professionals of Illinois, Local 4100, “is they’re not coming from a lack of students, or a lack of curricular need. They’re coming from a lack of funding. We’re working harder than ever—and we’re still losing our jobs. That’s why I’m here to call on Governor Pritzker to release the $25 million already allocated to higher education. Fund Illinois’ universities so we can continue to serve our students.”
John Miller, the newly elected Membership Secretary of IFT and President of the University Professionals of Illinois, Local 4100, added "We are underfunding higher education by $1.4 billion. We are one of the largest exporters of students in this country. We are losing our future because it's cheaper to go to higher ed outside of the state. That’s not right. That’s harming our future. It's time to pass bills that are going to fund higher education. It is time to tax the billionaires and the millionaires. Our students deserve it. Our communities deserve it. Our state needs it. It will be the solution to our problem and grow the economy."
IFT members attending the lobby day represented schools and public workplaces from Chicago, Northern Illinois, the Metro East region, Southern Illinois, and Western Illinois. They included Jeri Shaw, a member of West Frankfort AFT Local 817, a district funded at 74% adequacy. Shaw recently helped negotiate a new contract for their community: "Our district’s challenges stem, in large part, from a severe uncertainty in regards to state funding. We are constantly struggling to meet the most basic needs of our students. Our community is full of caring, hardworking families—many middle class, but many more living in poverty—whose children depend on our schools, and by extension, the state, for far more than just academics. To truly meet our students’ needs, we must have schools staffed with qualified educators, equipped with adequate daily resources, and supported with reasonable class sizes. Every child deserves that foundation. Yet, as it stands, many schools are one emergency away from being forced to close their doors."
Mari Garvonado of the North Suburban Teachers Union Local 1274 outlined the impact of underfunding, “This past year, I had to watch colleagues at nearby districts be forced to combine groups of students with significantly different learning needs into the same groups. It wasn’t because it was best for students. It's because of the budgetary and staffing limits left no other choice to these dedicated educators right now. Too many districts are still so far from their adequacy targets. We know what that means, larger classes, fewer paraprofessionals, unstable staffing for students who need the most support. This is what underfunding looks like. It's not abstract. It is human. It is children waiting. It is teachers breaking and families losing faith."
Pankaj Sharma, IFT Secretary-Treasurer and President of the North Suburban Teachers Union, Local 1274: "Every day our students ask me, ‘What about checks and balances? What about separation of powers? Who's gonna stand up?’ Congress isn't standing up. The courts aren't standing up.It's on us to stand up. The world is upside down. The Department of Education instead of supporting public schools is attacking them. They're cutting funding. They're taking away academic freedom. They're targeting educators. We can't let that stand."
“I teach in suburbs where we are losing teachers, great educators, public employees, who say, I can't keep doing this job till I'm 70. I deserve to retire with a decent pension…We're not going to take this anymore. We need the revenue.”
Dr. Venisa Beasley-Green, a CTU member and school social worker referenced the toll Trump’s occupation of Chicago is taking. “Books, lunch, special education services and supports accessing school counselors and other clinicians to assist students in processing the traumatic experience that our federal government is invading their lives with are more needed than ever. It should not be left to chance. Being a Chicago Public School grad from the West Side of Chicago, myself, I am an example of what investment looks like and what it means for their quality of life. Bet on your schools. Illinois Governor Pritzker and lawmakers, it is the supreme investment."
The 400 IFT members from across the state met with their representatives to show how families and communities are unfairly bearing the brunt of holding back the promised resources for schools and their students. They argued that all students, especially Black, Latine, and working-class students, need state action to shield them from federal cuts.
The best way to resist Trump’s harmful agenda, they said, is to make Illinois a leader in fair funding and pointed to Massachusetts as proof that taxing millionaires strengthens schools, hospitals, and communities, and said Illinois needs similar action to achieve the governor’s goal of becoming the nation’s top state for education.
They were joined by representatives from the People’s Lobby and the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition advocating to also fix the underinvestment in public transit through revenue from taxing the ultra-rich.
Evan Urchell of the People’s Lobby added, "Right now, the same thing with transit is happening with education. Transit is heading towards a fiscal cliff. Right now. They're going to slash services across the board, across the entire state of Illinois, city, suburb, down state, doesn't matter, and people won't be able to make it to work. They won't be able to see their family, their friends, they won't be able to go to the hospital, and they won't be able to go to school."
Wednesday’s lobby day marks one of the first major actions by IFT’s newly elected leadership slate, who were unanimously elected on Oct. 18, 2025. The new officers collectively hold more than 157 years of teaching and union leadership experience, and they campaigned on launching a robust statewide effort to deliver promised but never-realized funds to schools across Illinois.
The livestream of the press conference is available at https://facebook.com/iftaft.
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The Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) represents 103,000 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.
