By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
For several years we’ve been sounding the alarm about Illinois’ dismal rates of literacy.
In Peoria, just 7% of black children can read at grade level. For Hispanics in Waukegan, it’s only 13%. Decatur’s whites are at just 12%. And of the black students in the Chicago Public Schools, only 17% are at grade level.
Overall, 1.2 million of Illinois’ 1.85 million school children can’t read at grade level.
Those are numbers the education establishment refuses to acknowledge and doesn’t want parents to know. And its allies in the traditional media often help suppress the facts we frequently report on.
So when several high profile individuals, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, help us expose the truth on X, we’ll take it.
Here’s how it played out yesterday:
Tech influencer i/o began the action by linking to Wirepoints’ report, Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools, and posting: “ZERO students passed the state math proficiency test at 53 Illinois public schools… At one such school — a “prep school” designed to prepare students for medical careers — the per student spending is $47,000.”
Elon Musk dropped in with various responses throughout the day: “!” “Wow” and “Yeah,” meaning tens of thousands more people saw the results of Illinois’ broken education system.
“Failing schools don’t need more money, they need accountability” wrote Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Not a single student can read at grade level in 30 Illinois schools. I bet they can name a dozen genders though and explain why white people are evil” wrote the Libs of TikTok.
The next day, Dr. Jordan Peterson posted his own response.
It’s all welcome attention, because attention is the best weapon we have against everything the education establishment in Illinois does to block the truth.
Most of Illinois’ children can’t read. We’ll keep shouting that fact until it gets the recognition it deserves. And that means major reforms to the system: an end to social promotion, a return to phonics, a reinstatement of high expectations, a dismantling of teacher union powers, and, of course, universal school choice.
Here are just a few other ways the state and Chicago education systems are failing Illinois’ children:
- Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
- Chicago Public Schools’ twisted goal: End selective enrollment schools while keeping nearly empty, failing schools open
- The failures beyond Evanston High School’s segregated AP classes
- Chicago Public Schools: Hundreds of new sexual abuse allegations, not stolen laptops, should get all the attention
- Illinois becomes first state in America to go backward on school choice
- In the name of equity, Chicago looks to close schools with top-performing black, Hispanic students
- Illinois per student spending jumps to nearly $24K, CPS at nearly $30K.
- 5 facts they don’t want you to know about Illinois’ 2023 student test results
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
These failing school districts should be held accountable. If they can’t provide a decent eduction for these children they should be dissolved.
These aren’t great schools, obviously, but that’s not the actual problem. It’s still a building with classrooms, hallways, lockers, gymnasiums, teachers, staff, etc. The algebra textbook is the same here as it is for New Trier. “Bad school” doesn’t explain these off-the-charts results. People want to blame the “school” as some weird abstract thing but the only real difference these days are the students and their families. Most people who place a high value on education left for the suburbs or another state. People tend to self-sort by values more than anything. And as all these good families leave, CPS… Read more »
Well…. if there is no hope with the system we have, then let’s change the system. Let’s try school choice/vouchers. Maybe the kids parent(s) would be involved if they thought their kids would have a chance if they weren’t forced to go to a failed school.
But, his point was – what of the “school” has failed? The physical plant? Or, is it the people – sent by the teachers’ union, the parents and the kids. That’s the variable. When I lived on the south side of Chicago we went to some of those schools….but let me tell you, if my folks had heard even a HINT of the kind of behavior the teachers talk about in the schools today, I’d likely not be here to talk about it. In our highschool of several thousand kids – one “guidance” counselor for each grade, one attendance officer,… Read more »
From the things I’ve read this is not limited to IL-it’s a nation wide issue. They are dumbing down the current generation of kids but nobody has gathered stats for the entire country.
There were dismal results back in 2006. John Stossel made a film about education in the U.S. vs other countries. Note the money spent in Kansas City schools like Olympic size swimming pools and nothing happened to scores. Interesting article.
https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/a-review-of-stupid-in-america-how-we-cheat-our-kids
Parents more interested in sports perhaps…
Thank you for continuing to fight this fight. And congratulations on national recognition.
Perhaps the governor, governor disaster, could declare an “education disaster” for the State?
Chicago’s mayor, da educator, could initiate a grass roots volunteer intervention program to teach the alphabet to the children?
A prep school to prepare students for medical careers? At the current level of
Proficiency these student expect to be what in medicine. Doctors, registered nurses, neurosurgeon, orthopedics.
Would you want this person working on you? How about waiting for a cardiac cath
From one of those Einsteins.
You will be better off staying at home and waving some burning sage around your head and chanting. The odds at least
Would be in your favor.
I was a corpsman in the with 3 tours under my belt and I went to an inner city Chicago HS. I also have performed over 1000 IV insertions, performed 6 tracheotomy procedures , reset bones , packed gun shot wounds and the list goes on. Don’t count people out just because they showed no promise in the beginning
Thank you for your service.
Illinois as a whole thrives on producing low educated students. My downstate district is praised for its schools and people pay relatively high prices for homes because of the schools yet the numbers round out to about a 50% meeting expectations level. One thing for sure though there are great athletic programs that provides entertainment for the parents and students on the weekend. That’s what it all a bout isn’t it? Entertainment and fun because academics are so boring and are to be ignored.
You’ve said it all! Give the parents and their children winning teams and fun activities: academic ranking scores are way down on their list of interests, generally speaking. Give ’em winning teams, and all else is quickly forgiven in most communities. The only academic gauge either group seems to comprehend and care about is the grades given by individual teachers, and that assessment always has a political component of appeasement attached to it. “My son/daughter has straight A grades” means far less than the person saying it generally understands. It’s gotten to the point that schools often have multiple honor… Read more »
Riverbender, do you really believe that Illinois parents pay among the highest taxes in the country because they are only interested in great sporting events? The teachers unions try to sell such ridiculous propaganda, and the parents keep pushing for school choice to try to get their kids out of the strait jacket of public education. But sure, keep blaming parents.
In my particular area school choice is really not a significant issue and I do not think any parent would say that they pay the highest taxes because of sporting events but it does seem to work out that way. Funny how that is…
Riverbender – you are correct that there is undue emphasis on sports, and that emphasis distorts the academic mission. I say this as an athletic scholarship recipient at a top level Power 5 D1 school. And yes parents do move to districts with good athletic programs.
Sports are not a consideration in the primary grades when children learn to read. Lack of adequate reading skills by 3rd grade almost guarantees the student will struggle in the rest of his school years. The idea that parents are too interested in sports and therefore don’t care if their children acquire basic skills doesn’t have any basis in reality.
They don’t challenge their kids in later grades as they should given the focus on athletics. And yes, third grade is a huge threshold.
And those parents keep electing the far left progressives who support the unions and policies that lead to this.
Don’t forget this gem: Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates sends her kid to private school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHe7rEcbJbY
APPEARS TEACHERS ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN STRIKING AND PAY RAISES….KINNA SAYS IT ALL!!!!!!!
i/o aka @eyeslasho is not a “Tech influencer” he’s an extremely controversial HBD (Human Biodiversity) guy who posts a dozen times a day that blacks are less intelligent than whites, and not because of racism, but because of genes. This doesn’t make them genetically inferior, but, rather it’s just one of those things science proves that society needs to accept, and we need to make public policy reflect this scientific truth. The HBD stuff may, or may not, have scientific merit, and there’s arguments either way, but its one of those topics that makes someone sound like I hate to… Read more »
Great job team Wirepoints! If anyone has links of groups people could team up with to stop this mess, now would be a great time to post them. We need organization and cohesion!
If you live in any suburb, chances are turnout for school board elections is very low. If you want to do it, you could probably get elected. But be warned you’ll spend a lot of time in tedious meetings with unhelpful colleagues, and reviewing material beforehand, and you won’t be paid. Typically boards are dominated by professional “educators” who work at other districts, or consultants.
The boards in most urban areas, especially in northern Illinois, are dominated by avowed leftists, even in ‘conservative’ communities. The races become extremely competitive as soon as a Deplorable enters the race. They’re not easy to win because they are controlled by leftists who are backed by the teachers unions who collect their ballot signatures, fund their campaigns, etc. Yes, there is extremely low turnout, less than 20% in my area, but 60% of that 20% – the avowed progressives in my community, roughly 12% of registered voters – band together, vote early and often, and bring home the win… Read more »
Here is a good article from a while back in Imprimis. It explains in the article about March primary’s for school districts have much lower voter turnout and most of who vote work for the district.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/what-public-employee-unions-are-doing-to-our-country/
I will read this
Spot on taxpayer
Thanks to Wirepoints for your hard work in bringing these horrible numbers the spotlight they need. I hope the next item that Elon, Vivek, and Libs of TikTok note is the story you did a while back showing that most of the students are not even close to the proficiency standard.
On the Bright Side schools have been designated as “violence free zones”!
“ Education Free Zones “ would be more truthful.
Democrats rely on the electorate being stupid. That’s because only stupid people would believe what Democrats tell them and vote for them. Only stupid people would put their lives in the hands of the government to take care of them. The politicians have created an entire future generation of adults that will have room temperature IQs.
I think stupid is the wrong word. Republicans also lie and do lots of dumb stuff too. People are busy and sometimes make mistakes. Lots are waking up ever day. We need to team up and work together instead of pointing the finger at others.
Sorry, but stupid is the exact application to those who voted for people that push abortion, gambling and legalized pot as a viable business model for the state of IL.
It’s worse – many Democrats are indoctrinated and exhibit cult like behavior. The Democrats with the most formal ‘education’ appear to be most affected. The mask is a great telltale sign, as well as TDS.
Expect Governor Carnival Barker and Mayor Raggedy to respond to this with both barrels. How dare anyone point out that Democrat policies fail. Even worse, pointing out that union protected teachers are a major part of the problem is a low blow that will not be tolerated. Pritzker’s gigantic head will explode when he sees this, and Brando will start spewing more word salad about disinvestment, equity and root causes. Should be fun.
Fully expect Biden, Durbin, and Duckworth to blame the failure of IL public education on PDJT and ‘MAGA Republicans’ Works for the MSM. If only PDJT could be destroyed, IL would be a better place – Muchas Gracias! said the new policeman as he confiscates your property for Pritzker.
Blaming failing schools on MAGA doesn’t work for the legacy media. Nobody watches legacy media anymore. Is there some reason you feel the need to turn obvious progress into a tortured compliment for Pritzker?
Thumbs down from three “ new arrival” candidates for the coming”Los Federales “ academy opening soon.
JB, Brandon, ctu & teachers unions, chaulkbeat fluffers, etc will just revert to the same old tired claim that schools abysmal performance are due 100% to under-funding under “evidence based funding formula” that RAUNER AND REPS signed on to…that’s all you’ll get from the machine admitting any culpability in state school performance face plant.
People all over the world now see how extreme Pritzker and IL Democrats are, along with their corruption doing the bidding of their paymaster the teachers unions. Kids last in IL.