Yes, a positive story. A victory for everyday Illinoisans – Wirepoints
In a state where property taxes keep going up and up and up – and where they are already the highest in the country – Effingham voters just said enough is enough. They just successfully blocked a $57 million tax hike, but they had to rally like crazy to get the win.
Sen. Durbin throws Illinois students under the bus, including kids from his own East St. Louis – Wirepoints
Sen. Dick Durbin opposes a new federal program that would deliver school choice to students in all 50 states, called the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). The program, supported by the President and Republican majorities, is part of the proposed budget omnibus currency being negotiated by Congress.
New Illinois law makes it tougher for voters to block school district borrowings/tax hikes. Effingham good example. – Wirepoints
Kudos to Effingham voters for getting in front of a bad law that disenfranchises Illinois taxpayers. Signed in September 2024 by Gov. Pritzker, the new law makes it tougher for voters to stop their school districts from borrowing money. The law should be repealed.
New Hampshire joins the Universal School Choice wave. Illinois increasingly a black sheep. – Wirepoints
Add one more state to the wave of Universal School Choice overtaking the country. This time the expansion is in New Hampshire. School choice now practically surrounds Illinois. Parents should be demanding why Gov. Pritzker and his party’s supermajorities reject educational freedom.
Illinois education officials look to hide their failures by lowering reading, math standards. Just say no. – Wirepoints
There’s a big push in the state education bureaucracy to lower the school reading standards that determine whether a child in Illinois is considered proficient in reading and math or not. If lowering standards makes no sense to you, you are right to be confused. Lower standards will do nothing to help Illinois kids become more proficient in reading. In fact, it will likely make things worse.
Illinois politicians killed school choice. Now the federal government could deliver it anyway. – Wirepoints
A group of union-dominated states – including California, New York, Oregon, Colorado and Illinois – are opposed to any form of school choice. Now the feds may deliver school choice to those states anyway via the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA).
Illinois increasingly surrounded by school choice states. Gov. Abbott signs universal school choice into Texas law – Wirepoints
In what should create envy in many Illinois parents – especially those with children trapped in schools where not a single student can read at grade level – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed on Saturday the nation’s largest day-one school choice program into law.
2024 data: Not a single child tested proficient in math in 80 Illinois schools. For reading, it was 24 schools. – Wirepoints
It’s time for an update on Illinois’ educational failures with the state’s 2024 Report Card data available. In 2024, there were 80 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 24 where no student tested proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students.
Pritzker and Johnson’s obsession with a racialized, sexualized, politicized school curriculum – Wirepoints
If only Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson would swap out their passion for DEI and transgenderism in Illinois classrooms with an obsession for literacy and numeracy, Illinois’ school system might dramatically improve its student outcomes.
What’s happening in Texas is good news for Illinois parents – Wirepoints
Plans for Texas to soon adopt a massive school choice program is good news for Illinois parents. Another state joining the nationwide wave of school choice expansion means Illinois increasingly stands out for its lunacy of having killed off its only school choice program in 2023.
New teacher contract: CTU wins, CPS wins…Chicago taxpayers lose – Wirepoints
One of the biggest cons the CTU and CPS continue to pull off is convincing Chicagoans that the two are adversaries. After lots of supposed acrimony, they’ve just agreed to a preliminary teachers contract. The result is a win-win for them. Meanwhile, Chicagoans get stuck with the bill and the city digs a deeper financial hole for itself.
Shutter, roll back, freeze. Three things Chicago Public Schools needs to do. – Wirepoints
Lawmakers won’t pursue the structural reforms needed to fix CPS, so the only real short-term fix is to cut the district’s ballooning costs. Like shuttering the district’s dozens of near-empty schools. Or rolling back the massive increase in non-teacher staff hired during covid. Or holding the line on teacher salaries, which are now among the highest in the country.
An Illinois school district, where just 7% of kids are proficient in math, rewards superintendent with $480K salary – Wirepoints
The Lansing Journal reports that Dolton School District Superintendent Kevin J. Nohelty is set to receive a salary of $480,000.
Homeschooling and the hypocrisy of Illinois politicians – Wirepoints
Illinois politicians’ latest attempt to impose their will on homeschooling took one case of parental neglect and twisted it, expanded on it, and turned it into an indictment of homeschooling in general. But if you know anything about Illinois’ public education system, you’ll recognize the rank hypocrisy immediately. Illinois schools are full of truancy, abuse, educational neglect and poor accountability. Yet lawmakers do little to nothing about that.
One big reason your Illinois property taxes are so high. And why you should get a big refund. – Wirepoints
Too many Illinoisans have yet to connect the dots between their outrageous property taxes and the huge amount of money politicians keep pouring into K-12 education. In 2000, the state was spending $16.2 billion overall. If that had grown at the pace of inflation, today the total would be $29.5 billion. But the real number is far higher: $43.9 billion.
A sample of trans-genderism taught in Illinois 4th-grade classrooms – Wirepoints
Take a good look at the book recently read by a teacher to her 4th-grade students at my neighborhood public school in Wilmette. You’ll quickly understand why DEI, and trans-activism in particular, have become so objectionable and divisive and why the backlash at the national level to remove such content from our schools has become so powerful.
The education results in Decatur and cities across Illinois are beyond dismal. We must make it politically toxic to defend those outcomes. – Wirepoints on with Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur Radio
Ted joined Jeff Daly for a special can’t-miss, in-studio interview about the dismal state of education in Decatur and across Illinois, what an Illinois DOGE could and should do for taxpayers, what Illinois’ future looks like unless school choice is implemented, and more.
One of the first targets for an Illinois DOGE? Chicago’s 20 nearly-empty, failing schools. Here’s the 2025 list. – Wirepoints
Ask the CTU for a bit of efficiency, like shuttering the district’s nearly empty, failing schools, and all hell breaks loose. Overall, one-third of schools at CPS are half empty or worse, according to the latest 2025 district space utilization report. Closing many of those schools could save taxpayers hundreds of millions a year and give kids a chance to attend more functional schools.
One big example of why Illinois badly needs a DOGE of its own – Wirepoints
If you reflect soberly on Illinois and Chicago’s problems – corruption, ever-higher taxes, declining services and a shrinking population – you’ll quickly reach the conclusion Illinois needs a DOGE of its own. If you’re not convinced, take a look at the mess at Chicago Public Schools.
The next absurd bill from Illinois’ legislature: Removing student test scores from teacher evaluations – Wirepoints
A look at ISBE data shows that the connection between teacher evaluations and student test scores has been bastardized for years. Take 2024. Even though just 39% of students statewide could read at grade level, 97% of all teachers were rated “excellent or proficient.” Now things are about to get worse.
No matter what Pritzker or the Tribune says, Illinois’ NAEP education results are abysmal – Wirepoints
We’ve been asked by many readers for the real truth about Illinois’ reading and math results. Some commenters are trying to square up our recent negative piece on the newest national math and reading scores with what they are seeing elsewhere. The bottom line: Illinois’ education results are abysmal.