(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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A lucky Illinois lottery player just hit the Mega Millions jackpot.

According to the Illinois Lottery, a jackpot winning Mega Millions ticket from the drawing on Tuesday, March. 25, was sold at a Casey’s General Store, located at 70 S. Somonauk Rd. in Cortland, in far western DeKalb County.

The ticket matched all five Mega Millions numbers — 1, 5, 17, 39, 62 and 8 — plus a Megaplier to win a whopping $344 million.

According to the Mega Millions website, it was the only jackpot-winning ticket sold as part of Tuesday’s drawing. The next drawing, with an estimated jackpot of $20 million, takes place at 10 p.m. CT Friday.

The big winner comes just before major changes take place for the lottery game, with a “new version” of Mega Millions set to go into effect in April that features ticket price increases, better odds and more frequent prizes, officials said in news release.

Breaking down the big Mega Millions changes to know about

Starting with the April 8 drawing, ticket prices will increase from $2 to $5.

The game also comes with a new prize matrix, which is broken down here.

The popular, $1 “Multiplier” add-on feature is also going away, according to the release. Instead, tickets will come with a “built-in multiplier.” The “Just the Jackpot” feature that was available in some jurisdictions will also be retired under the new rules, the release said.

Other game changes, according to Mega Millions officials:

• Improved overall odds – Overall odds to win any prize will improve to 1:23 from 1:24 due to the removal of one gold Mega Ball from the game
• Improved odds to win the jackpot – Odds to win the jackpot will improve to 1:290,472,336 from 1:302,575,350 due to the removal of one gold Mega Ball from the game. The new game will feature 24 Mega Balls instead of the 25 in the current game
• Larger starting jackpots – Following a jackpot win, the starting jackpot will reset to $50 million instead of the current $20 million.
• Faster-growing jackpots and bigger jackpots more frequently – Jackpots are expected to grow faster and get to higher dollar amounts more frequently in the new game. The Mega Millions Consortium estimates that the average jackpot win in the new game will be more than $800 million vs. approximately $450 million in the current game.
• 2X-10X prize increase with built-in random multiplier – Every non-jackpot win will multiply its base prize by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X automatically. Prizes in the new game will range from $10 to $10 million vs. the $2 to $1 million in the current game.
• Win more than the cost to play – With a minimum prize of $10 on a winning ticket in the new game, every winning ticket will pay out at least double the $5 cost for each play. In the current game, the minimum prize on a winning ticket and cost to play are the same: $2.

When do the changes take effect?

According to the release, the final drawing of the current version of Mega Millions is set to take place Friday, April 4. The first drawing under the new prize structure, officials said, will be held at 10 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 8.

“Unless someone wins the jackpot on the April 4, 2025 drawing, the jackpot from the current game will roll into the new game and continue to grow with ticket sales from the new game,” the release said.

Mega Millions and its lottery counterpart Powerball are sold in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball also is sold in Puerto Rico.

Powerball has said it had no plans to increase prices.

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. – An Illinois man has been charged in connection with a human trafficking investigation that resulted in the arrest of a Round Lake Beach woman in 2019.

“There is nothing more revolting than taking the innocence away from a juvenile and promoting a child for prostitution,” Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said at the time.

The backstory:

On July 12, 2019, Sheila Johnston – who was 33 years old at the time – was arrested for allegedly pimping a 15-year-old girl whom she had legal guardianship of.

According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Johnston posted an online advertisement attempting to sell the girl for sex. Undercover detectives saw the post and began communicating with Johnston, who allegedly agreed to offer both the girl and herself for sex.

Johnston then reportedly took the girl to a hotel in Waukegan, where she met an undercover detective posing as a customer. Johnson was taken into custody, and the girl was turned over to child welfare workers with the state’s Department of Children and Family Services.

Now, six years later, 51-year-old Jose Puga was arrested in connection with the case.

Authorities said as the investigation progressed, new evidence and witnesses came to light, providing detectives with “sufficient proof” to link Puga, of Wonder Lake, to the crimes perpetrated against the 15-year-old girl.

An arrest warrant was issued for Puga and on Tuesday, he turned himself in at the Lake County Jail. A detention hearing was set for Tuesday.

He’s been charged with the following:

• Three counts of Involuntary Sexual Servitude of a Minor (Class X Felony)
• Three counts of Trafficking in Persons (Class 1 Felony)
• Six counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse (Class 2 Felony)

What they’re saying:

Sheriff Idleburg commented on the update.

“While the investigation was lengthy, the relentless dedication of the investigators ensured that those responsible for victimizing this child were brought to justice,” he said.