Newly Elected IFT Officers, Educators, State Workers from Across IL to Head to Springfield in Veto Session Push for Promised but Undelivered Funds for Public Education and State Services

IFT Members Urge Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to Respond to Trump Cuts with State Investment as Schools Go Underfunded, Food Stamps Set to Go Unpaid

What: IFT Press Conference during Lobby Day to Counter Trump Cuts with Funding for Schools and Public Services

When: 11:30 am, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

Where: Front steps of the Capitol, 401 S 2nd St, Springfield, IL 62701, livestream will be available at https://www.facebook.com/iftaft/

Who: Newly elected Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) officers, President Stacy Davis Gates, Executive Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, Secretary-Treasurer Pankaj Sharma, and Membership Secretary John Miller, with hundreds of members from across the state

Hundreds of educators and state workers from the 103,000-member, Illinois Federation of Teachers will be joined by their newly elected Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) officers, President Stacy Davis Gates, Executive Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, Secretary-Treasurer Pankaj Sharma, and Membership Secretary John Miller to rally in Springfield during the fall veto session on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

They will be calling on Governor JB Pritzker and lawmakers to counter Trump’s devastating cuts by closing the state’s own tax breaks for tech companies and the ultra-rich and investing in state services that finally deliver promised but not provided funds to public education and pull the state’s higher education system away from the fiscal cliff it is teetering on.

At the grade school and high school level, nearly a third of districts are operating at 76% or less of adequate funding. As a result, local districts across Illinois are facing the challenge of meeting legal requirements for special education and students with disabilities, providing hot meals to students, and maintaining workable class sizes and well-kept facilities.

Additionally, Gov. JB Pritzker is currently holding back 2% or about $25 million in discretionary funds from colleges and universities that were passed in this year’s state budget. Illinois State University alone would receive an additional $1.6 million from these withheld funds. 

Lobby day attendees will meet with their representatives to highlight how families and communities are unfairly bearing the brunt of a broken system and argue that all students, especially Black, Latine, and working-class students, need state action to be protected from federal education cuts. The best way to resist Trump’s harmful agenda is by making Illinois a leader in fair funding. 

States like Massachusetts have shown what’s possible when they tax the millionaires and revenue is reinvested in schools, hospitals, and communities. Illinois taking up a similar policy will be necessary to meet the governor’s stated goal of making the state No. 1 in education nationwide.

This lobby day marks one of the first major actions by IFT's newly elected leadership slate, which took office on Oct. 18, 2025. The new officers collectively hold more than 157 years of teaching and union leadership experience and campaigned on launching a robust statewide effort to deliver promised but never realized funds to schools across Illinois.

Educators and state workers from Chicago, the Northern suburbs, Southern Illinois, and Western Illinois are expected to attend.