Springfield & School Budgets: What to Know

The Governor is celebrating an unfunded cell phone ban while at the same time, children are going hungry, families are losing health care, and educational institutions continue to crumble, with larger class sizes and fewer adults in the building to help students on their educational journey.

But in the early hours of the morning, our Governor and Illinois lawmakers found the will to put forward a package to give a tax break to the $9 Billion family that owns the Bears.

Read our full statement on the IFT website. Here is a quick recap from Springfield on the state budget:

• Our advocacy succeeded in restoring the funds the Governor cut from Evidence-Based Funding (EBF - from $305 back to the *minimum* payment of $350M). Credit goes to Rep. Will Davis and Rep. Graciela Guzman for their continued push for real full funding that addresses the needs of students and schools across Illinois.

• Our work helped to again secure a $5 million line item in the FY27 budget to fund the Virtual Instructional Coaching Program (VIC/WeCare) to help keep new educators supported and in the profession. Thank you for taking action last week!

• The funding for National Board Certified Teachers, the premier teacher training program that was cut by the Governor, has been restored.

• IFT and CTU’s unique advocacy and education campaign prevented the passage of a version of the megaprojects bill that would’ve caused a generation of school funding to be lost and would have increased the property taxes on homeowners across the state.

• The strikes at UIS and UIC should be credited with making abundantly clear the need for fully funding higher education and for helping push the legislature to include more funding for universities. However, higher education is nowhere near what it needs to be.

• Our advocacy, together with our partners in the Illinois Revenue Alliance successfully made Illinois the fourth state in the country to pass a Digital Ad Tax – which will raise $1 billion for our communities by taxing big tech and making some of the wealthiest corporations in the world pay some of what they owe.

  
  

In a statement we shared with the press on Saturday night, we named: this budget is not enough in compliance with EBF, does not provide enough revenue for schools, and does not reflect enough courage from legislators. That means:

• Students missing out on the resources, services, and supports that help them thrive

• Classrooms going without enough paraprofessionals, aides, and support staff

• Educators stretched thinner without the staffing, materials, and time needed

• Higher education remains underfunded, limiting access and affordability

• Communities see fewer investments in essential services that families rely on

The leadership of Sen. Guzmán and others in organizing 40 legislators into the Affordability and Tax Justice Coalition, and working side by side with our partners and us to win the Digital Ad Tax, shows that taxing the ultra-rich is entirely possible. The formation of the Affordability and Tax Justice Coalition among legislators is a good sign and provides a foundation to build on. But other progressive revenue ideas weren’t taken up at all. Altogether, the Governor and the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly left at least $3B on the table.

This budget is not enough to meet this moment, and it will leave hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans out in the cold:

• 500k losing Medicaid

• 150,000 losing SNAP

• Homecare workers going without a raise

• Students shorted $6B from Pre-K to PhD

• Colleges and universities are still funded less now than twenty years ago.

Undernourished students, unaddressed cost of living, and over-subsidized billionaires and their corporations are not the right results of this legislative session.

Let’s be clear: this is a choice. Governor Whitmer in Michigan found a way to provide the students of her state with free meals. Governor Ferguson in Washington state ended their session by signing a new millionaire tax. This can and should be done here. Asking those at the top to contribute more is not only fair, it is necessary to ensure our schools and communities have what they need to succeed. Without that courage, we will continue to fall short of what’s possible.

Our work does not end with the end of this legislative session. We will continue to organize our members to push for full funding for our school from Pre-K through PhD, and from Lake County to the Metro East.

We must stay informed, engaged, and ready to act. In the coming months, we encourage you to:

• Follow updates from your union

• Participate in in-district lobby days

• Engage in the summer endorsement process

• Watch for additional opportunities to organize and advocate