Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker poised to win second term, unofficial election results show

This can be a growing story.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is headed for a second time period.

Unofficial outcomes from the Illinois State Board of Elections present the Democratic incumbent with a large lead in opposition to his Republican challenger, state Sen. Darren Bailey. The Related Press known as the race for Pritzker shortly after polls closed on Tuesday.

Public training in Illinois has been one of many key points separating the 2 candidates throughout this election season as the 2 candidates staked out opposing positions on the whole lot from masks mandates in colleges to what’s taught to how a lot cash colleges ought to get from the state.  

Pritzker instructed Chalkbeat earlier than the election that if he wins a second time period, he plans to extend state funding for training for Okay-12 colleges and broaden entry to increased training. He additionally stated that he needs to make early training extra inexpensive for households and improve pay for early childhood lecturers. 

Bailey, R-Louisville, served 17 years on the North Clay Board of Schooling and based a personal Christian college that his spouse nonetheless runs. He was elected to the Illinois Normal Meeting in 2018 and opposed Pritzker all through the COVID-19 pandemic, which dominated the governor’s first time period. 

Bailey simply received the first in opposition to 5 opponents regardless of being considerably out-fundraised. On the marketing campaign path, he has appealed to “parental rights” voters and promised to ban “essential race principle”  — a authorized framework taught in regulation college that conservatives began utilizing as a catchall phrase to oppose colleges instructing about racism and the legacy of slavery. 

He additionally railed in opposition to a brand new intercourse training regulation and stated he would minimize funding to training and fireplace the present state board of training members. In a rally Monday night time, Bailey spoke to a bunch of suburban moms about Democrats imposing vaccine mandates for school-age kids in the event that they have been to be re-elected, ABC7 reported. Pritzker has not indicated he plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for public college college students.   

Pritzker got here into workplace in 2019 after beating Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner with greater than 54% of the vote in 2018. 

Simply over a yr later, Pritzker’s administration had to reply to the coronavirus pandemic. He selected March 13, 2020 to shut the entire state’s greater than 800 college districts. Faculties rushed to get college students studying on-line to proceed the college yr. 

Backlash from conservatives quickly adopted. Early within the pandemic, Bailey made a reputation for himself opposing Pritzker’s government orders within the courts. He filed a restraining order in opposition to Pritzker’s stay-at-home order and refused to put on a masks in the course of the spring legislative session  in 2020. 

The state continued to regulate public well being necessities for college students and faculty workers to maintain up with the shifting pandemic for the final couple of college years. Pritzker issued a number of government orders requiring college workers to obtain a coronavirus vaccine or check weekly, quarantining college students and employees who examined optimistic for COVID-19 or have been shut contacts, and implementing common masks mandate for Okay-12 colleges. Most mandates have been contested by mother and father throughout state college board conferences and in court docket. 

Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic dominated a lot of Pritzker’s first time period, he additionally elevated the state’s training price range by greater than $1 billion, and signed legal guidelines to create an elected college board for Chicago, ban coiffure discrimination in colleges, and require Illinois colleges to show Asian American historical past. 

Previous to Pritzker taking workplace, the state created an evidence-based college funding method in 2017 with the intention of including $350 million to the state’s training price range yearly. The purpose is to get the state’s 800 college districts to ample funding by 2027 in an effort to deal with inequities throughout the state. The method was signed into regulation after a  price range deadlock that lasted between 2015 to 2017 below the Rauner administration and resulted in funding cuts to Okay-12 colleges and a lower in funding for the state’s tuition help program for low-income college students.

Throughout Pritzker’s first time period, he saved a bipartisan promise so as to add not less than $350 million towards Okay-12 training in 2019, 2021, and 2022. In  2020, nevertheless, the price range remained flat as a result of financial affect of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Within the 2022 price range, the governor elevated funding for early childhood training and for the Financial Help Program that permits college students from low-income households to attend school. 

In 2021, Pritzker signed into regulation a invoice that made Illinois the primary state to require public elementary and excessive colleges to show Asian American historical past. He additionally signed the Jett Hawkins invoice that forestalls non-public and public colleges from discriminating in opposition to college students primarily based on hairstyles traditionally related to race, ethnicity, or texture. 

Pritzker additionally signed payments that broaden the Chicago Academics Union bargaining rights, which has been some extent of rivalry for over twenty years, and can give Chicago a completely elected college board with 21 seats by 2027. 

Samantha Smylie is the state training reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago protecting college districts throughout the state, laws, particular training and the state board of training. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.