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Educator urges Illinois teachers to reject union pressure, politics and coercion

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Education, Elections, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Taxes, The Center Square, Unions on August 7, 2025| 1 Comment »

“Say hey to our newest class of educators in Barrington 220!” | Barrington 220 School District Facebook post August 7, 2025

By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor

With the Illinois Education Association’s mid-September opt-out deadline approaching, critics call for a permanent opt-out option instead of yearly reaffirmation, arguing union influence restricts school choice and teacher autonomy in Illinois.

Sarah Fletcher, a former charter school educator and now the Head of School at White Horse Academy, a private school, said her own teaching career trajectory was shaped by a desire to avoid union involvement altogether.

“When we moved here to Illinois from Arizona, I had very little interest in teaching at the public school,” Fletcher said. “Part of that was because I didn’t want to be pressured into or have to be mandated to pay dues. The IEA and IFT, which are part of larger organizations like the NEA, use the majority of their funds not to represent teachers, but for political advocacy.”

Fletcher said she founded White Horse Academy in part to provide a space where teachers wouldn’t be required to hold state certification or pressured into union membership. She says the high cost of dues isn’t justified by what little teachers get in return.

“Oftentimes unions don’t advertise opting out is an option. I experienced something similar in a different sector where there was a union. I was heavily pressured into signing paperwork to pay union dues and was basically told I had no choice,” said Fletcher. “Much of the money from the dues collected fund political agendas, even opposing public and private school options. For example, [state Rep.] Terra Costa Howard, who wrote the homeschool bill HB 2827, received nearly $500,000 from teachers’ unions.”

According to Illinois Policy, Chicago Teachers Union members pay over $1,400 in dues annually, but less than $149 is spent on representing Chicago teachers.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME on June 27, 2018 means teachers nationwide are no longer required to be part of a teachers union in order to keep their jobs.

Read more here.

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August is teacher union opt-out time: what you need to know

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Education, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Unions on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

There is one time a year for most public education employees to opt out of their teachers union. That time is now. Here’s why it might make sense for you/them.

By Lilly Rossi | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinois teachers’ unions spend little on representing teachers, what should be their core focus. So why should teachers fund union bosses’ politics, excesses and salaries with their union dues?

They don’t have to. Education employees in public schools can opt out of union membership, save their hard-earned money and keep all the benefits of the union contract.

But time is limited: most unions require notification during August to stop pulling dues from teachers’ paychecks.

From classroom teachers to the support staff in public schools, here are the answers to frequently asked questions about opting out of a teachers union.

What is “opting out?”

“Oping out” is the process public school education employees can use to leave the union and stop paying dues, while continuing employment and keeping pay and benefits.

How do I opt out?
If you are an education employee in a public school within the state of Illinois, you will want to send a letter directly to the union. Visit one of these sites to get the paperwork you need:

  • For education employees represented by an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers: LeaveIFT.com
  • For education employees represented by an affiliate of the Illinois Education Association: LeaveIEA.com
  • For education employees represented by the Chicago Teachers Union: LeaveCTU.com

Why would I want to opt out?

  • The union spends too much on politics and on causes with which I disagree.
  • The union doesn’t represent its members well.
  • The family budget is tight, and that extra money could go a long way.
  • Opting out gives you the freedom to make choices you think are best.

Whatever your reason, you have the choice and cannot be forced to pay dues.

Read more here.

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Illinois teachers can opt out of unions in August. Here’s why they should.

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Deception, Education, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Organizations, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Taxes, Unions on July 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Just 15% to 26% of Illinois teachers union spending was on representing teachers in 2024. But public education employees can opt out of union membership and keep their hard-earned money.

By Mailee Smith | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinois teachers unions have a terrible track record when it comes to spending money on what’s important, but August is when teachers can reclaim their priorities and pay.

The Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers – the state affiliates representing most teachers in Illinois – spend very little on representing teachers, which should be their core focus. Chicago Teachers Union, a local affiliate of IFT, does just as poorly.

Public education employees upset with the way their unions spend their dues have a choice. They can opt out of union membership and stop sending dues to the union without repercussion. They keep all their employer-provided pay and benefits. And they can obtain liability insurance and job protection coverage at a fraction of the price of union membership.

But time is of the essence. Most teachers unions will only stop deducting dues if teachers opt-out in August.

Illinois teachers unions spend little on teachers

Teachers spend hundreds – and some over a thousand – on union dues each year. But their unions don’t prioritize representing teachers.

The unions’ abysmal spending on teachers is admitted in own their federal filings with the U.S. Department of Labor. It’s a significant indicator that unions take teachers’ money yet don’t put those same teachers’ interests first.

IEA is the largest teachers union in Illinois with 132,565 members, according to its 2024 federal filing. But just 15% of its spending in 2024 was on “representational activities” – what should be its core purpose. The rest was on administration, politics and other union leadership priorities.

Nationally, IEA members are represented by the National Education Association, which fared even worse. Just 9% of its spending was on representing teachers.

Read more here.

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State government salaries have grown 57% faster than private sector since 2021

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Commodius Maximus, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, The Chicago Way, Unions on July 30, 2025| 1 Comment »

State employees represented by AFSCME Council 31 received an automatic annual raise on July 1, highlighting the salary discrepancy between government and private sector workers.

By Mailee Smith and Bryce Hill | Illinois Policy Institute

It pays to be a state employee in Illinois.

July brought “pay raise day” for the tens of thousands of state employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

But it’s also the month which emphasizes the salary discrepancy between government workers and every other worker in Illinois.

Since 2021, state government worker salaries have grown 57% faster than pay for workers in the private sector.

As of 2024, the average Illinois state employee made $85,689 compared to an average of $78,267 in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Survey of Employment and Wages data. That’s a $7,422, or 9.5%, difference.

The July 2025 raise was just part of a total 19.28% pay hike agreed to by Gov. J.B. Pritzker when he approved the state’s contract with AFSCME Council 31 in 2023. The agreement provides an automatic raise of 2.5% to 4.0% for each year of the contract. Compounded annually, that’s 19.28%.

No matter what happens to the economy and the private sector, the state is committed under the contract to raises that outpace what other workers are earning. Between 2023 and 2026, these AFSCME raises are expected to outpace private sector raises by 51%.

Read more here.

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Congress wants largest teachers union to pick kids over politics

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A bill in Congress would hold the National Education Association accountable, forcing it to once more put students and educators first or risk losing its special status as a chartered organization.

By Rich Witzel | Illinois Policy Institute

The National Education Association was given a federal charter to be a professional advocate for teachers and public education, but it has morphed into a hyper-partisan advocacy group.

Spending tens of millions of dollars on campaigns, lobbying and ideology-driven resolutions that have little to do with students has real consequences. It hurts teachers. It politicizes the classroom. It undermines trust in public education. And it’s happening under the recognition of a federal charter, a rare privilege possessed by fewer than 100 national-interest groups, such as the American Legion.

Congress is considering fixing that. The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today Act, would hold the NEA to the same standards of neutrality, transparency and public service expected of any nationally chartered nonprofit. The STUDENT Act is intended to refocus the NEA on education.

NEA is more focused on power than education

In 2024, the NEA spent $23 million on political campaigns and another $3 million lobbying Congress. That same year, just 9% of the NEA’s spending was on representing its members, while the rest went to political causes and other union leadership priorities.

Its ideological drift isn’t hidden; it’s celebrated. At its 2025 Representative Assembly, the NEA passed a series of extremely partisan resolutions:

  • Praised anti-ICE and “No Kings” protests as models for “mass democratic demonstrations.”
  • Declared Trump’s political platform to be a form of “fascism” that the union must resist.
  • Denounced a Supreme Court ruling that supported parental opt-out rights from LGBT instruction.

This isn’t normal union advocacy for teachers. It’s a highly politicized agenda.

Educators join unions to advocate for better pay, safer classrooms and professional dignity, not to fund politically divisive causes. The results speak for themselves: the NEA has lost nearly 400,000 members since its peak in 2009. Teachers are walking away, and public trust is eroding.

Read more here.

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No. 2 no more: Illinois property taxes rank highest in U.S.

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Illinois Policy Institute, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Unions on July 25, 2025| 1 Comment »

Illinois just ranked as having the highest property tax rate in the country. Property taxes in Illinois are an especially heavy burden without the tradeoff seen in states such as Texas or New Hampshire, where there are either no sales taxes or income taxes.

By Charlotte Rotkis | Illinois Policy Institute

After years of ranking No. 2 to New Jersey, the latest data shows Illinoisans paid the highest property taxes in the nation during 2023. Worst, Illinoisans also pay steep income and sales taxes.

Illinois homeowners paid an average effective property tax rate of 1.83%, the highest in the nation. On a median-priced home of $250,500, that amounts to $4,584 per year. Neighboring states had significantly lower rates, making the idea of finding a home outside of Illinois appealing.

Property taxes are based on the idea that the people paying benefit from the services the taxes go to fund. Yet nearly 3-in-5 Illinoisans feel as if the value of public services they receive is not worth their high property taxes.

Are Illinois property taxes a reason Indianapolis and St. Louis are in the top 10 housing markets?

The disparity between taxes and services received stems from pension spending crowding out other essential services. In addition to limiting funding for key services, pensions are the leading force for driving up property taxes. Growing pension payments redirects money away from property tax relief or better public services.

Read more here.

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710k Illinoisans avoid work advancement to keep welfare benefits

Posted in Economy, Ethics, Illinois Policy Institute, Perjury, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes on July 17, 2025| 1 Comment »

Welfare programs are structured poorly and punish people for working to climb out of poverty. An estimated 710,000 Illinoisans have intentionally hurt their own economic advancement to keep welfare benefits.

By Sachi Gaonkar | Illinois Policy Institute

An estimated 710,000 Illinoisans have intentionally hurt their personal finances to avoid losing a welfare benefit, according to a new study.

A new report by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis shows nearly 1-in-4 welfare recipients has taken at least one negative action to avoid losing benefits, such as turning down raises or promotions, working fewer hours, declining job offers and refusing to build savings. With 3.2 million Illinoisians living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, that translates to at least 710,000 people in Illinois intentionally holding themselves back.

Social welfare programs are supposed to support families during times of need. Instead, they punish people in Illinois and across America as they work their way back to independence by removing health care, food and other benefits – a dynamic known as a “benefit cliff.” Research shows these cliffs are not only real, but that they affect a sizable number of Illinoisans.

National research highlights a structural challenge

Benefit cliffs occur when modest increases in earnings lead to a sudden and significant reduction in social welfare benefits. In Illinois, research from the University of Chicago shows a modest $1,000 annual wage increase, from $54,000 to $55,000, would result in an Illinois family losing over $25,000 in child care benefits. This dynamic can leave workers in a significantly worse financial position after a raise or promotion than they were before.

Individuals in households with people with disabilities were more likely to avoid economic advancement, underlining the added vulnerability some groups face when navigating social welfare programs. In Illinois, half of disabled people age 18 to 64 are not in the workforce.

Read more here.

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Illinois ranked No. 1 for cell phone taxes – before latest hike

Posted in Illinois Policy Institute, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes on July 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Illinoisans paid the highest state and local taxes for wireless cell phone services in the nation in 2024 – $136 per family more than the average. An increase in Illinois’ telecommunication tax July 1 just made them even higher.

By Charlotte Rotkis | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinois was already home to the highest wireless taxes in the nation with a family paying $136 more than the U.S. average, but they just went up even more.

Residents have been paying 37.7% in taxes on their monthly wireless bill. This includes 24.9% in state and local taxes, fees, and surcharges as well as the 12.8% in federal taxes for the Universal Service Fund.

For a family of four sharing a $100 plan, that adds close to $38 each month. Illinois families pay $456 a year in cell taxes while the U.S. average is $320.

Illinois’ local wireless tax is 8.65% as of July 1. It increased from 7% to support the state’s 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Chicagoans will pay even more because Illinois allows local per-line taxes of $5 a line in the city. Per-line taxes burden families and lower-income wireless users more heavily than percentage-based taxes.

More here.

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Illinois lawmakers worry about paper coupons, death carpets, stickers, beauty sleep

Posted in FUBAR, Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Overhead, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way on July 7, 2025| 1 Comment »

What pressing issues did the Illinois General Assembly consider among 6,745 bills this past session? They pondered a sticker commission, “end-of-life” carpets, paper grocery coupons, 15-year-old voters and their own beauty sleep.

By Lilly Rossi | Illinois Policy Institute

The Illinois General Assembly had ample opportunity to tackle the state’s massive public pension debt, curb the nation’s top tax burden or fix the state’s finances, but what did they do instead?

They considered 6,745 bills that included creating a voting sticker commission, regulating end-of-life carpets, stopping grocery store coupons from going paperless, registering teens three years before they could vote and making sure they did not lose sleep doing their jobs.

Here are the details on five bills that lawmakers were wise enough to allow to die this year:

  1. Creation of a “sticker commission”

Senate Bill 1576 would have created an “I Voted” Sticker Commission. The commission would have been tasked with developing a contest to finalize 10 designs that would be used in the 2026 General Election. Any spending for this commission would be in addition to the $55.2 billion budget, sticking Illinois taxpayers with the costs.

2. Death carpet seller registry

House Bill 1876 intended to implement a carpet stewardship program. The purpose of the program would be to promote and market for “end-of-life” carpet recovery and reutilization. HB 1876 would not have allowed carpet to be sold in the state of Illinois if the producer were not registered with the program.

Read more here.

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Call it Independence Day – the meaning matters

Posted in Illinois Policy Institute, Taxes, The Greatest Generation on July 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Happy Fourth of July? Nope. We should always call it Independence Day. It reminds us of what we celebrate and what it means.

By John Tillman | Illinois Policy Institute

America’s founding unleashed the greatest leap forward in human history. From this leap, liberty and prosperity followed – and not just material prosperity, but also prosperity of the human spirit. After all, that is what happiness is all about; not some transitory joy over a good joke or an amusing moment in life.

Independence and thus liberty did not come easily. It took decades for the colonies to move from discontentment to revolution to independence. The seeds of the revolution were planted long, long before 1775 or 1776.

I share this not because we are in the patriotic season. I share it because all of us in Illinois need historical perspective.

I talk to many of you who are frustrated by our state’s challenges. Many of you express envy for the political victories that swept the country a few years ago in seemingly every state but Illinois. I feel those pangs of frustration myself as I have watched policy victories unfold in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, New Jersey (New Jersey!), Indiana, Florida and elsewhere. It is hard to watch the march of liberty elsewhere when it seems we remain bottled up in trench warfare here.

But despair not. The seeds of victory in Illinois are being sown today. They are growing and gaining strength. We cannot always see the progress, but there are clear hints all around us.

Read on here.

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