By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
It’s hard to argue against any proposal that wants to ensure a good pipeline of teachers for Illinois schools. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and new State Superintendent Tony Sanders just visited Sander’s old school district, Elgin U-46, to announce the state’s new $70 million teacher pipeline initiative. The proposed program will direct those funds over the next three years to the 170 school districts with the greatest need to fill teaching positions.
But in Illinois nothing is that simple. The first and main reason to be skeptical of more spending – we’ll be making those arguments more formally in a follow-up piece – is that Illinoisans already spend more on education than most of the rest of the nation. At $17,300 per student, we spent the 8th-most in the country in 2020 – 60% more than what Indiana spent ($10,900) and 35% more than what’s spent in Wisconsin ($12,700).
“Can’t we do better with the money we spend?” is the question most reasonable people might ask. “We pay the highest property taxes in the country, the majority of which goes to schools. Don’t we already pay for better teachers?
And of course are other explanations for the state’s teacher shortage beyond their salaries, including a far less generous or secure retirement system (Tier 2), more dangerous teaching environments and politicized teaching requirements (CRTL). Spending more on recruitment may do very little until those other systemic problems are addressed.
A better starting point then, is to hold Gov. Pritzker and Supt. Sanders accountable for where we are with teachers and student outcomes right now. To do that, let’s look at the results right in Elgin, where the two of them chose to announce the program and Sanders spent more than a decade managing. That’s where the proposal to increase spending almost becomes farcical.
More teachers are good, everything else equal, but what’s the point when it’s impossible for a parent to tell if a teacher is good or bad at their job? 98 to 100 percent of Elgin teachers have been rated “excellent or proficient” since at least 2017.
Despite those great evaluations, only 1 in 10 minority students in Elgin are able to read or do math at grade level (the district is 56 percent Hispanic).
Even more. Sanders allowed thousands of students to be passed from one grade to the next despite them not being reading or math proficient.
Sanders owns those dismal reading proficiencies – grade by grade – given his nearly ten-year tenure as superintendent.
And Sanders let his Hispanic students graduate year after year even though their ability to read at grade level on the SAT fell from three in ten to just two in ten in 2022.
What’s wrong about this is obvious. We shouldn’t put a penny more into education until there’s true accountability for the money already spent.
And you may disagree with that, but lots of people aren’t putting up with the status quo. They’re simply leaving. They don’t need to scream or fight or advocate for accountability when they move to another state.
Take a look at the total number of students in Illinois’ school system. CPS gets lots of attention for its collapsing enrollment, but the state of Illinois as whole has been taking a hit, too. Since 2010, public school enrollment has fallen by 218,000 students, or more than 10 percent.
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So you want to attract more teachers to the profession? More money and more training and whatever won’t make a difference if it’s a failed system that fewer and fewer people want to be a part of.
The system has been bastardized by a lack of accountability and the eradication of real goals like merit, achievement and competence. It’s being replaced by DEI, CRT and other ideologies.
Which brings us back to the irony of Pritzker’s appointment of someone like Sanders to run the state’s education bureaucracy. How can Illinois’ education improve and attract better teachers when the new boss has a history of even worse results than the system as a whole?
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
- Unwed births, illiterate children and black-on-black crime: What Chicago’s mayoral candidates ignore
- Elgin’s Tony Sanders promoted to Illinois State Superintendent, though just 2 in 10 students in his district can read at grade level.
- Six facts Gov. Pritzker doesn’t want you to know about Illinois’ 2022 Report Card
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
A superintendent from a challenging district is exactly what is needed rather than someone from the North Shore or Quincy. Yet the author cherry picks the data from this district to condemn the whole system. Education is expensive and professional teachers deserve professional salaries. Property tax should not carry the whole load. Too much emphasis is placed on tests. Tests are designed by corporations that use grad students and temporary hires to write questions. Who knows what kind of test score the author would get or did. There are many factors that affect learning and many students who don’t achieve… Read more »
The average salary in U-46 is over $75,000. This is above the state average. Teachers are not underpaid.
The general assumption here about educators is that they are overpaid. The low standardized test scores seem to generate lots chit chat to that effect. So, let me ask a direct question that sort of opinion engenders. First, generally speaking, would such performance likely be improved if the teacher applicants were required to have some kind of accepted marker identifying their presumed superior quality such as graduation from a truly nationally recognized university or, perhaps, a minimal I. Q. of 135, let’s say? Do you think those credentials almost always guarantee superior test scores for their student? The second question… Read more »
You’re using logic James. That usually floats over many commenters heads on this page. People want teachers to graduate from the best schools with the best knowledge and pay them peanuts and cheat them out of their pensions.
Somehow they think demanding more credentials and less pay will magically attract the right people to the job.
You’ve summed-up the usual attitude exhibited here very well: teachers are paid way too much along with gripes about low test scores, a snide remark or three about them also working far few man-hours per day along with fewer days per year and less “hard work” for it than anyone else they know. Oh, and let’s not forget that totally undeserved multi-millionaire dollar pension they’ll “earn” so they can eventually live in a villa at Punta Taxpayer, Fl, in retirement as well.
The strawman arguments from the two of you goof, patting each other on the back, is insufferable. No one says “we only want teachers with 135 IQ’s.” A 135 IQ is in the 98th percentile IIRC. This is a fake argument. And yes, of course, the small number of people in the teaching profession with 135 IQs probably work the best highest paid schools, duh! The issue repeated over and over again is teach the three R’s. Like we did for *centuries* in the United States, before it was infiltrated with communists who view schools as indoctrination massadras. There’s a… Read more »
Well, you clearly want to be a politician. So, what’s stopping you? Quit stabbing at everyone else who doesn’t meet your standards and put yourself in the fray. Quit being a whiner! You have all the answers (you think). Show us how to do it, but be prepared for your share of slings and arrows, too. Just try pleasing your voters. You find many just like you; they’ll never ever be pleased with you, I’d wager. Put up or shut up.
This is for you, James:
Sorry bad link, here’s the full cartoon:
You are so incredibly full of it! LOL! No, your kid didn’t go a day without reading, math, or science. Unless he’s in college, he’s not learning CRT. I had to Google SEL, but I don’t see any problem with it. Quite the opposite! Kids NEED to learn to not be total dicks to each other, like the adults are. And WTF is “globohomo”, ffs? You’re showing a very unpleasant fact about yourself that will probably be much more detrimental to your son’s development. 😢
Ann: Tell me you know nothing about modern elementary education without telling you know nothing about modern elementary education…
LOL, according to the state’s ELA and math testing, he exceeds grade level, so I’m not too concerned. No thanks to the school though, we spend lots of time outside of school learning about the ‘real world’ … I had to opt him out of all the SEL/CRT crap…I saw the curriculum beforehand, it’s basically “not all boys act like boys, some boys act like girls, don’t assume someone’s gender” and “people with white or light colored skin have special privileges, they get to do things that other people don’t” and all that crap.
I can name one U46 elem school that doesn’t have a principal, AP, social worker, PE teacher, etc. it falls on the teacher to do those roles. On top of already having a shortage the teachers are told to do 90 minutes a day on math but when they are teaching two grades at the same time the kids only get 45. But hey, Tony gets 250k/yr just to say 20% is a D grade.
More money is not the answer. Unless it comes from the waste know as school boards and superintendent positions. Kids know how the system works by now. They can pretty much do as they want they will never be expelled. They do not have to do homework anymore (if they choose) They don’t care!!! The parents Don’t Care!! The good students that care and have a household that maintains a close watch and stays involved with the school system are there and thank God for them. The rest need you to help them not by looking the other way and… Read more »
U-46 uses Standards based learning which basically with U46, a 1 is 20.25% or a D. So when kids do reading comprehension questions, and get 5 out of 20, that is a D. Lets fix that. And hope Dr. Sanders doesnt try to push those grading standards elsewhere.
Roy, please share those grading standards with us if you can. Thanks.
It is time for vouchers. Our private Christian school in Illinois does WAY better than that. We teachers make very little money but love the kids and are dedicated to teach them and make sure they can read.
Christian teachers deserve fair pay. Now.
Perhaps they should join a union and demand fair pay.
Kids are violent psychos and parents don’t parent, dumping that responsibility on the teachers. And when the teachers try to parent the admin threatens them with termination. Why would anyone in their right mind want to teach?
It’s gotten bad for sure.
Elgin used to be a rich kid’s school. Have the demographics changed or is it just a dysfunctional rich kid’s school system now thanks to Sanders and Prickster?
When was Elgin a “rich” kids school? Hasn’t been in the last 30 years so not sure how far back you are thinking. 47% hispanic in Elgin for 2020 census and over 25% foreign born. That typically isn’t the demographic one thinks of for rich kids. It also creates a strain on resources when over a quarter of the town may not speak English as a first language. Maybe the struggling schools in Elgin have less to do with the teachers and administrators and more to do with the make up of the students? But that’s not as fun when… Read more »
I know, right? It’s always the students. American schools have struggled to teach immigrant children to read since the first public school opened in Boston in 1635. Immigrants from all over the planet, speaking hundreds of languages and dialects, arrived in the US to become educated and virtually none of them learned to read or write English. My own family, arriving in Chicago from the old country, a decade before the Great Chicago Fire, their children never learned to read or write, and their children’s children never learned to read or write either. We still speak the language of our… Read more »
U46 parent here – that has never been true. You might be thinking of Elgin Academy which is a prestigious private school in Elgin. The public schools in Elgin are dismal. The only thing keeping U46 afloat is the upper middle class kids in Bartlett and Wayne. If you take those towns out of U46, their test scores look worse than CPS.
CRT is a second year law school course. It is not being tought to anyone in k-12. Stop spreading misinformation.
LOL
Ignorant and uninformed .
Gdom, like hell it isn’t. You are repeating a persistent lie. Its key elements are routinely incorporated, though often not under the CRT label. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjJxsfb7cz9AhWDm2oFHQhvBBQQFnoECAoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.city-journal.org%2Fyes-critical-race-theory-is-being-taught-in-schools&usg=AOvVaw3_pVpn3-uT__xGzIbiXt1X. And it is often even taught using that label. The teachers union expressly defends that. The IEA gave a “Teacher of the Year” award to somebody for reasons that included his CRT teaching.https://wirepoints.org/stamp-out-objections-to-critical-race-theory-and-masks-says-illinois-education-associations-parent-organization-to-social-media-companies-wirepoints-quickpoint/. Many examples are easy to find on the internet.
Quoting Wirepounts isn’t convincing 🤣
Why are you all so anxious to deny CRT in schools, when it is clearly an important element in progressive ideology and proposed policies? If it’s what progressives believe, then own it. Don’t hide behind this ridiculous argument.
It is happening in my district.
This whole aura portryed by some here of CRT education happening in public schools almost everywhere surely is a conflation of the real situation with a fearful politically motivated point of view about that topic. Sure, its happening in some school districts and more heavily in some places than others. But, that’s not the same as thinking its “taking over the schools” as many here are inclined to think. You all need to remember that teachers are individuals and not robots all programmed to teach the same things in the same way and with the same gusto peformance level no… Read more »
You are absolutely lying and using your politics to dictate your reality. You can talk about problems without lying. CRT is not in grade schools, that’s an absolute fact and has been a fact. Anyone saying otherwise is a politicized, right wing nationalist who ignores our own constitution to push your Christian Taliban rhetoric and indoctrinate our children without choice. Absolutely disgusting that you would start a non-existent culture war to justify your ignorant and partisan opinions. Stay away from my God damn children you ignorant psychopathic fascist. It’s amazing how much lies and misinformation the right spreads because you… Read more »
Mike,
We absolutely are coming for your children. We’re going to make them all Trump supporters. We’re going to red-pill them against you. We are going to start teaching conservative values in schools. Your days of CRT, globohomo and drag queen story hour are over. Move to canada if you don’t like it because we’re coming with overwhelming force and in many places, we’re now using the the power of the state to enforce a conservative education.
Youre all going to make them Trump Traitor treasonous violent pathologically lying grifter supporters ? Ummm what are ya smoking ? Youth are far too educated to fall for fascist BS
The results of U-46 while Tony Sanders was superintendent is terrible. This draws directly back to how schools are funded in Illinois and the power the Teachers Unions wield in Illinois. Teachers, school administrators and superintendents and the state superintendent should be held accountable for the educational outcomes of our schoolkids. If our kids fail to achieve, then these people should get additional training or be terminated.
It’s largely the parents. Yeah, I’m sure not every teacher is doing the great job they claim but parents don’t work in shit at home. They’re too busy doing drugs and shit to even try and help their kids through life. We just live in a bleak place in time rn. Unless parents start working with their kids things will get worse.
Both Mutt and Jeff look like they are both
Just dropped a deuce in their shorts
I’d be smiling too with the pension-medical the new Il State Superintendent must be receiving. First stop, a wealth management bank to help me mange the future millions. Then selection of a condo like in New Mexico where I could retire in a few years to live out my next four decades.
People who plan for their retirement probably are happier. It’s very satisfying knowing that you have put together a retirement plan and it will soon come to fruition. Don’t be jealous just because others have a plan. Make your own plan.
And if the plan is dependent on an Illinois State or Local Public Sector Defined Benefit Pension Ponzi Scheme and the system that enabled it…they just rationalize and hope the Ponzi scheme continues to be funded or something.
Higher taxes and slower property value appreciation are two consequences of Illinois State and Local Public Sector Defined Benefit Ponzi Scheme Pensions enabled by the Ponzi Scheme Protection Clause.
That’s what happens when you run up the credit card. Don’t like it? Start advocating for full actuarial funding.
Higher taxes and slower property value appreciation are the two consequences of voters supporting politicians that don’t pay their bills on time and instead borrow money from the pensions.
Money was diverted from pension funding to hike salaries.
Bigger salaries resulted in bigger pension contributions at a time when the pensions were already underfunded.
This resulted in a bigger unfunded liability Ponzi scheme.
The Ponzi scheme kept growing and growing.
Part of the Illinois Public Sector Defined Benefit State and Local Pensions Paid First scheme.
Illinois is a leader in Public Sector Defined Benefit State and Local Ponzi Schemes.
Some would argue Illinois is the best in that category, depending on the criteria used.
So what. Doesn’t matter. Pensions can’t be diminished or impaired. They are legal contracts and as such protected by the great constitution of the United States and Illinois.
Ponzi Scheme Pensions Paid First, One possibility is the fiscal condition of the State and Federal government deteriorates to an extent where Illinois voters approve a State Constitutional amendment enabling the state legislature to modify the Ponzi scheme pensions. https://wirepoints.org/pensionsolutions/how-we-fix-it/ That would be a bitter ugly battle. Given the current Democrat and union political power in Illinois and their wide and varied tentacles such as 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) non-profits, political operatives, political consultants, foundations, ESG woke capital, those receiving state government contracts and other business, etc. it seems that would not happen until the State is an absolute disaster. At… Read more »
Illinois State and Local Public Sector Ponzi Scheme Pensions Paid First Are Legal Contracts And As Such Can’t Be Diminished Or Impaired Per The Illinois State Constitution And The US Constitution.
The Ironclad Ponzi Scheme.
Is how it has played out so far.
Can it last forever?
Will property taxes increase 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, or what before Joe Taxpayer moves.
How about income taxes?
Annual property appreciation adjusted for inflation?
The politicians sit around juggling balls to keep the Pension Ponzi Scheme Paid First game going another year.
Illinois taxpayers are more than welcome to leave as you’ve noted. Maybe the state will put a transfer tax on all real estate sales and they could offer a credit if the person purchases another property. If they leave, one last tax on their property to collect from the people skipping out on the bill. Plenty of opportunities to raise more taxes.
Ponzi Scheme Pensions Paid First,
Plenty of opportunities to raise more taxes to fund Illinois State and Local Public Sector Defined Benefit Ponzi Scheme Pensions.
That is obviously the risk to taxpayers who remain in or move to Illinois, as noted by no less than Warren Buffet pertaining to the risk of opening a new manufacturing plant in Illinois.
You might work well on a billboard promoting Florida, Tennessee, or even Texas.
Who knows, maybe if it gets bad enough, all those people that moved to Florida, Tennessee, or even Texas will be on the hook if there is ever a federal bailout. Remember, pension funding issues are well beyond just Illinois.
Sure people from states without the debt will be mad but just like Covid, when faced with the prospect of massive number of state failures, the feds may have no choice unless they want the economy to implode on their watch.
You can run but you can’t hide Mikey boy.
How about penalizing teachers when they retire and collect their hefty pension and move out of state. This is total b.s!. Some don’t even live in the same district they teach in and making out good. On top of that they get student loan forgiveness after 10 yrs meanwhile who on the hook for the balance. Warm bam thank you ma’am.
Selective discrimination likely is never going to be legal in the ways you’ve described it. In general, you can’t cherry pick groups having clearly identifiable characteristics you hate and make legislation clearly aimed at penalizing them.
How dare these people think they can work for 35 years as specified by their pension and then have the audacity to think they can ever move. The nerve of these people. Maybe we should tax individuals combined amount in 401Ks, IRAs, and other brokerage accounts. I just read an article on Politico last week about this very subject. It’s titled “Before Slashing Social Security, Cut 401(k)s“. The authors suggestion is a 0.03% annual tax to help fund Social Security. So someone with a 100k in their accounts would amount to a $30 tax right out of their pension. The… Read more »
This is the most bias right wing website about Illinois out there. You cherry pick all the data to push your narrative.
The liberal solution is to always throw more of the tax payers money at the problem. Liberals quantify success as dollars spent, not outcomes achieved. Its like the old definition of insanity that defines it as “Doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.”
Utter🐂💩.Conservatives are big government spenders when it comes to lining their greedy pockets but paupers when wanting to support 99% of us . Welfare for the rich, unbridled capitalism for the rest .
Former U-46 Superintendent Sanders wasn’t even qualified to be a Superintendent and yet he was given that job. Illinois actually had to pass a bill to make him an exception! His promotion was a joke.
I did not realize how incompetent Tony Sanders is. Thanks to Wirepoints for pointing that out. Also scary if I am a homeowner in U46. Who would want to move there – high suburban taxes and CPS type student results? Sanders must must be good at sucking up to Pritzker, as that is the type of people JB surrounds himself with.
“How can Illinois’ education improve and attract better teachers when the new boss has a history of even worse results than the system as a whole?” It can’t, and it won’t, because too few people seem to care enough about their poor schools to incline Pritzker and the teacher’s unions to change course. 56% of Sander’s district is Hispanic, and only one in ten have been able to read at grade level year after year. And yet the Hispanic parents (who we’re told care more about education than other ethnic groups) haven’t been in the news outside this guy’s office with torches and… Read more »
This is exactly why businesses are so skeptical of the quality of Illinois high school graduates coming into the workforce. Unfortunately, yet another reason why so many small businesses are leaving the State for others.
The Hispanic parents may not know, since the students are all bringing home report cards with A’s and B’s. If the parent does not speak or read English, it may be hard for them to realize that in fact the child cannot read well.