Large majority of Illinois residents believe public education is a right, report shows

(WIFR) – Despite recent controversy over the state of education in the United States, Illinoisans believe public schools must be a top priority.

Wednesday, the Illinois Education Association (IEA) released its seventh annual IEA State of Education report. It found that a majority of Illinoisans believe all students have a right to public education, support public schools, and believe teachers and support staff should earn more money.

Specifically, 91% of Illinoisans believe students have a right to public education.

The data shows having high-quality public schools is more important to the people than balancing the state’s budget.

Illinois receives nearly $2 billion in federal money, according to the IEA. Those funds maintain programs for individuals with disabilities, special education and Title 1 specifically in low-income districts.

Illinois Federal Funds:

• IDEA: $641.5 million
• Title 1: $794.5 million
• PELL Grants: $1.1 billion

“Schools are going to close and even though they are saying ‘We are going to move the same amount of money in block grants to states,’ I don’t know where the consistency is going to be.” said Al Llorens, the president of the Illinois Education Association. “80 percent of public schools in Illinois are underfunded. All this is going to do is exacerbate that.”

Wednesday’s report also highlighted the people of Illinois believe school board members should be most focused on student success, not taxpayers or politics.

More than 70% of Illinoisans believe national political groups should not be involved in local school board elections. That’s why public educators emphasized voters can make a difference and urge everyone to cast a ballot during the school board races in the April 1 Consolidated Elections.

“They influence staffing, they influence curriculum, they influence budgets, student support services, and the policies that define what happens in classrooms every single day,” said public school educator Jennifer Adam. “This isn’t about partisan politics, it’s about protecting public education.”

The IEA states the poll conducted by Normington Petts and Next Generation Strategies surveyed 1,000 Illinoisans. It’s the only bipartisan poll monitoring Illinoisans’ views on all aspects of public schools. The poll has a margin error of +/-3.1% with a 95% confidence.

Other key data points from the IEA State of Education report include:

• 91% of Illinoisans believe that students have a right to a public education
• 74% of people think teaching has become harder over the last few years
• 78% of the public say they are very worried about the teacher shortage
• 71% believe funding for public schools should increase
• 62% support pension reform to allow those in the Tier 2 pension system to retire before the age of 6
• 62% of the public believe adjuncts should be paid the same as tenured professors when they are teaching the same courses
• 80% of Illinoisans are opposed to book bans
• The vast majority believe we should be teaching racism (75%) and slavery (81%) in our public school
• 72% of Illinoisans believe national political groups should not be involved in local school board elections.

More information about the IEA State of Education report can be found here.

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