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Ding’s D220 Deception

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Daily Herald, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Ethics, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois State Board of Elections, New Normal?, News Media, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, South Barrington, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Transparency, Unions, Wirepoints on June 20, 2025| 4 Comments »

On April 22, 2025, the Barrington School District 220 election results were certified. Among the successful candidates was incumbent Erin Chan Ding.

The new members were installed at the May 6, 2025, School Board meeting. Ding previously won election in 2021 and had served as a School Board member for 4 years before winning reelection. During those years of service from May 4, 2021, through her reelection and installation on May 6, 2025, Barrington 220 School District policies, including the Code of Conduct, were discussed, revised and voted upon. Ding vowed to uphold these policies when she took her oath of office, the most recent being her swearing in on May 6, 2025. Among these policies are:

2:80-E Exhibit – Board Member Code of Conduct

Each member of the Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education ascribes to the following code of conduct:

  1. I will represent all school district constituents honestly and equally and refuse to surrender my responsibilities to special interest or partisan political groups.

  2. I will avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety which could result from my position, and shall not use my Board of Education membership for personal gain or publicity.

Board records show that the Board discussed and voted to reaffirm the Code of Conduct on September 5, 2023, where Ding seconded the motion. Ding further serves on the Board’s Policy Committee that once again reviewed and recommended this Code of Conduct on August 24, 2024.

As seen in recent publications, on June 18th, Ding officially launched her candidacy in the Democratic primary in the 52nd House District. In doing so, Ding has squarely violated the Board Member Code of Conduct. In Sec. 2:80-E(1), Ding swore to:

“refuse to surrender (her) responsibilities to special interest or partisan political groups…”

Yet, on June 18 she launched a decidedly partisan campaign for a Democratic position. In Sec. 2:80-E(2), Ding swore to “not use (her) Board of Education membership for personal gain or publicity.” Yet, as seen on her social media pages and in media releases, Ding has published and been quoted using her Board of Education position as a boon for her Democratic campaign:

“As a twice-elected school board member, I care deeply about ensuring all children and people feel valued and seen — and confident that their local representatives will work for them.” (Daily Herald article)

Ding has violated her oath of office and her commitment to non-partisan representation of the Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education. One of the Illinois Democratic Party’s largest funding comes from Illinois Teachers Unions.

Wirepoints recently reported: “In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates. Nearly $26 million, or 94%, of those contributions have been accepted by Democrats… Since 2020, 19 of the top 20 recipients of teacher union political contributions were Democrats or Democratic Party-supported initiatives.” (https://wirepoints.org/teacher-unions-have-spent-nearly-30-million-on-elections-in-four-years-wirepoints/)

In fact, Illinois Federation of Teachers endorsed the Democratic challenger, Maria Peterson, in the last election for the 52nd House District. (https://www.ift-aft.org/candidates).

You’ll be hard pressed to find a Republican among these endorsements, although there are a few. And, Peterson’s D-2’s for her run for the 52nd exhibits over $37,000.00 in donations from Illinois Federation of Teachers and Lake County Federation of Teachers.

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It is implausible to believe that Ding will not be beholden to the teachers’ unions or disavow endorsements and donations from their lobbyists. Similarly, JB Pritzker’s $50,000.00 will be in play,

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not to mention the other hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Democratic Party that built up Peterson’s $2,821,571.28 war chest. Ding simply cannot avoid the “appearance of impropriety” while she panders to these partisan special interest groups in order to build her own war chest.

And, of course, she votes on the union contract for the D220 teachers as well as on any disciplinary actions to be taken against a teacher. Yet, she lists among her endorsements multiple “public educators” in Barrington 220. How does this not present a “conflict of interest” and an “appearance of impropriety”?

Beyond these clear violations of the Code of Conduct, in seeking these endorsements Ding has also violated Sec. 2:105 Ethics & Gift Ban, which prohibits acceptance of political favors.

It is also implausible to believe that Ding did not conceive of running for the 52nd at the same time she was running for 220 School Board. Ding deceived the voters in running for her current position on the Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education. In fact, she has commingled her Erin for Illinois social media page with that of her Erin for 220 page as if there’s no distinction.

“Friends of Erin Chan Ding” is listed as being responsible for her “Erin for Illinois” Facebook page in her run for the 52nd District and is the committee that ran Ding’s School Board election. This is another clear violation of her oath and the Code of Conduct. She boldly states: “And yes, I’ll continue to serve on the Barrington 220 school board with my whole heart during this campaign,” as though she has the unfettered right to defy the rules that govern her School Board conduct.

We call upon and urge all voters to demand Ding’s immediate resignation from Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education as she has violated the Board Code and demonstrated her clear partisan representation of the public in this position.

Editorial note: We’d be remiss in failing to point out that two other Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education members have participated in Ding’s announcement that she’s running for higher office, with both Barry Altshuler and Harathi Srivistava appearing at Ding’s announcement party (both pictured in the photo above).

While this may not rise to the level of an OMA violation, it certainly evidences the very partisan (Democratic) nature of your current District 220 Board of Education. Indeed, Srivistava was widely endorsed and largely funded by the Illinois Democratic Party.

Related: “Chan Ding running in Democratic primary in 52nd,” “Three (3) Democratic candidates queued to run for the IL 52nd District House seat in 2026”

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Six questions Gov. Pritzker should have been asked during his testimony on Illinois’ sanctuary status

Posted in Crime, Dinky, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions, Wirepoints on June 17, 2025| 1 Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints 

The economic consequences of Illinois’ spending on illegal immigrants are real. Everyone gets hurt by the higher taxes that spending billions more imposes. But there’s much more to the migrant problem than that.

Our schools are being overwhelmed. Unemployment will likely jump. And so will poverty. Our streets have become less safe. And our economy will suffer.

If Wirepoints had been at Gov. Pritzker’s congressional testimony, here are six questions we would have asked him to answer:

1. How do you justify spending more than $1.5 billion of Illinois taxpayers’ dollars on healthcare for illegal immigrants when Chicago has the highest black poverty rate in the country among the nation’s biggest cities?

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2. How do you justify spending hundreds of millions, if not billions, on illegal, non-English-speaking children at Chicago Public Schools when the school district is already junk-rated, faces a billion-dollar deficit and has just 21% of black students able to read at grade level?

3. How can you justify allowing illegals with violent criminal histories to come to our state when Chicago has led the country in total murders for 13 years in a row and had the highest murder rate among the nation’s 20 biggest cities in 2024?

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Read more here.

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Illinois leaders continue to push resistance, non-compliance, unrest

Posted in Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Immigration, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Wirepoints on June 13, 2025| 1 Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

There’s no predicting how and to what extent protests will escalate across the country, and whether the deployment of the National Guard and Marines in LA will have served as a deterrent of riots in other big cities like Chicago. It’s in the nation’s best interest for any burning, looting and murder, like what overtook the country in 2020, be nipped in the bud.

But if we learned anything from yesterday’s Congressional testimony by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois’ leaders will continue to push a climate of resistance, non-compliance and unrest.

Pritzker doubled down on his previous rhetoric of “you come for my people, you come through me” when in his testimony he directly defied the federal government’s immigration effort. “I will stand in the way of Tom Homan…” Pritzker said, and openly challenged him: “If Tom Homan were to try to arrest me, I can say first of all, he can try.”

His words piled on top of all the dangerous messaging that Chicago’s other leaders continue to promote, like Mayor Johnson’s comparison of ICE’s actions to that of the Confederacy. Or Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s declaration that “Trump is using military force to crush civilian dissent.” Or Pritzker’s earlier calls for “mass protests and disruption” and comparisons of the MAGA movement to Nazism.

Even if you argue that they’ve all voiced rejection of violence in some way, collectively their language, both past and present, is creating a powder keg. Their words incite rather than deter violence. That, along with Pritzker and Johnson’s shielding of criminals from deportation by refusing to work with federal agents, is putting Illinois and everyday Illinoisans at risk.

It’s important to take Illinois leaders’ comments within the following context:

  1. The federal government’s efforts to aggressively deport violent illegal criminals is a direct and necessary response to the open, uncontrolled and chaotic border policies of Pres. Biden that allowed tens of thousands of criminals, along with millions of illegal immigrants, into the country.
  2. Some leaders are providing a counter-example to Gov. Pritzker on how to handle ICE protests. Texas Gov. Abbott has preemptively called on the Texas National Guard to be ready to quell any violence to protect his residents. And Florida’ Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signed “anti-rioting” language into state law, and has promised to crack down hard on any potential violence.
  3. Chicago has led the country in total homicides for 13 straight years. Violent crime also spiked to a six-year high as recently as May 2024. Chicagoans need more protection, not less. They need fewer violent criminals in Chicago, not more.

Mayor Johnson’s rhetoric has often been more radical than Pritzker’s. During a recent press event the Mayor called for a general resistance: “I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment. It’s a war on our humanity. Whatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next.” He also declared that the current immigration enforcement efforts are a reflection of “what our country would look like had the Confederacy won.”

Read on here.

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Too much local government makes Illinois inefficient, raises property taxes

Posted in FUBAR, Politics, Property Taxes, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on May 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Illinois is the most inefficient state in the Midwest and the 14th-most inefficient in the country. That’s driven in part by excessive units of local government – more than in any other state. High property taxes are one result.

By Chris Coffey | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinois’ No. 2 in the nation property taxes are partly because it is No. 1 in the nation for units of government, meaning consolidating and eliminating some units could cut property taxes.

A National Business Capital report ranked Illinois the least-efficient state in the Midwest and 14th-least efficient in the country for its governments. The report evaluated states along eight metrics including units of local government per 100,000 people.

Illinois’ inefficiency is driven by almost 7,000 units of local government – the most in the U.S. – and the cost of supporting all that bureaucracy. When population is part of the calculation, Illinois is 14th in the nation in units of local government per 100,000 people because it has the sixth-highest population.

The report included local government as a metric because “while population densities and geographic size vary greatly from state to state and impact the efficiency of local governments, each local government is replicating services that – in many cases – could potentially be offered by another nearby entity.”

Illinois has by far the most units of local government of any state at almost 7,000. The Midwest has more average units of local government than other regions, but Illinois still leads. In 40 states residents live under a maximum of two layers of local government, but in Illinois 61% of residents live under at least three.

Lawmakers have failed to reduce redundancy and waste, which could cut down Illinoisans’ second-highest in the nation property taxes by consolidating or eliminating unnecessary levels of local government. Illinois has had 6,000-7,000 units of local government for 65 years.

Read more here.

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Illinois isn’t building homes. Housing stock is up less than 1% vs. 2020, nation’s 2nd-worst performance.

Posted in Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on April 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Illinois lawmakers continue to complain about the lack of housing across the state, in particular affordable housing. “We must build more housing in every Illinois community from Cairo to Chicago,” Gov. Pritzker said last year. But lawmakers have no one but themselves to blame for the shortage.

Their very own policies limit the growth of multi-family housing. Restrictive zoning laws mean fewer opportunities for more housing. And burdensome building regulations and permits – not to mention the country’s highest property taxes – make Illinois a national outlier in home building.

A Wirepoints analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows just how far behind Illinois has fallen. Just 44,600 net housing units have been added in the state since 2020 – an increase in the housing stock of less than 1%. That makes Illinois 49th in the nation when it comes to increasing its supply of homes.

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Lawmakers have reacted to the lack of market-built housing not by opening up more zones for multi-family housing or by reducing property taxes or by easing regulations – like getting rid of silly rules that impose restrictions on how landlords must handle security deposits – but by passing more affordable housing programs subsidized by the government.

These subsidized homes end up incredibly expensive because the projects must comply with increasingly more demanding regulations and zoning rules, including green energy, environmental rules and diversity requirements.

That’s led to eye-watering costs to build affordable housing in places like Chicago. The Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and Crains have all complained about the massive per unit cost to build affordable housing in the Windy City.

The Sun-Times points out: “that’s much higher than market-rate developments and more than double the cost of new affordable units in Houston” and the Tribune noted: “a $38 million project cost amounted to an eye-popping $884,000 per taxpayer-subsidized rental unit, [compare that to] an existing 21-unit building nearby on the market now for $150,000 per unit.”

Read more here.

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Escaping Illinois Doesn’t Mean You’ve Escaped Pritzker

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Dinky, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), John Kass, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on April 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By John Kass | John Kass News

When we were young raising our family, pinching pennies to pay the mortgage and take care of the children, we’d see news stories about rising violent crime in my hometown of Chicago.

We’d breathe a sigh of relief, thankful that we were no longer in the street gang neighborhoods where murders were commonplace.

Yeah, we paid high property taxes in the suburbs—too high because the Chicago Teachers Union dictated the state’s politics—but at least we thought we were safer.

We thought we’d escaped. That lasted until it didn’t.  Now we’re gone.

And I see Illinois residents running as fast as they can for the exits, not only retirees and geezers like me fleeing to Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

But young people with good incomes—the kind a place can’t afford to lose—are fleeing Illinois as if from the plague.

“We couldn’t have planned it this way,” write Ed Dabrowski and John Klingner of wirepoints.org. “But our seven most-read stories in 2024 each captured a different facet of what’s wrong with Illinois.

“Failing schools. Murders. Closing businesses. A bloated, overpaid government sector. Election interference. Population-loss denial. And Chicago’s twisted equity priorities.”

Read more here.

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Pritzker and Johnson’s obsession with a racialized, sexualized, politicized school curriculum

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Girlie man, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Unions, Wirepoints on April 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | 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.

That swap is urgently needed. Today, 50% of Illinois’ white students are NOT proficient in reading, according to the state’s own board of education. It’s worse for Hispanic students. 73% are NOT proficient.

For black students, a tragic 80% are NOT proficient. (The outcomes for math are even more tragic. 91% of black students are NOT proficient in math.)

Unfortunately, Pritzker and Johnson are leaning even more heavily into the woke agenda that most Americans, including many on the left, are increasingly rejecting.

Listen and watch them in their own words. First Pritzker in recent speeches at Equality Illinois galas:

“Working with Democrats in the General Assembly, we’ve made Illinois the most LGBTQ+ friendly state in the country…We brought inclusive LGBTQ+ curriculum into our schools so that all students now learn about the contributions of queer and transgender trailblazers…The State Board of Education is implementing gender-inclusive policies to ensure that our schools are welcoming and affirming.”

Nothing about students’ (lack of) ability to read or write.

Read more here.

 

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Homeschooling and the hypocrisy of Illinois politicians

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, Springfield, Topics Of Interest, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on March 21, 2025| 1 Comment »

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Illinois politicians’ latest attempt to impose their will on homeschooling began with a single tragic story of one child’s abuse. Lawmakers took that case of parental neglect and twisted it, expanded on it, and turned it into an indictment of homeschooling in general. Now they want new legislation to control it.

Homeschooling risks truancy, they say. And abuse, educational neglect and poor accountability. That’s how lawmakers are fear-mongering about Illinois’ long-standing, hands-off approach to homeschooling in an attempt to gain more power over parents and children.

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. Instead, they’ve turned their attention towards the last form of education they don’t control.

The bill at hand, House Bill 2827, would force homeschooling parents – and private schools – to annually submit a declaration form to their local school district, with the potential penalty of fines and even jail time if parents don’t comply. Among other items, the bill also requires administrative and curriculum standards.

The bottom line is, the proposed law is an infringement of the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children (see the Supreme Court case Troxel v. Granville).

Yet Illinois State Rep. Terra Costa Howard, the lead sponsor of the legislation, justifies her bill by saying homeschooled children “lose daily contact with teachers and others who are mandated to report abuse and neglect.” That’s coming from someone who’s said and done nothing to address the source of the state’s biggest sexual abuse problem: Chicago Public Schools.

And State Rep. Michelle Mussman, another bill sponsor said, “We really are looking for a better way to capture the small, the very important subset of kids who are…missing an education or worse.” But Mussman and most Illinois legislators have done little to address the state’s own public school literacy collapse. Six out of every 10 children statewide are unable to read at grade level – that’s more than 1.1 million public school students.

Below we lay out the many hypocrisies of the homeschool bill supporters.

1. Rampant chronic absenteeism in public schools. Lawmakers’ concern about “truancy” in homeschooling falls flat considering they consistently allow up to a quarter of Illinois public school students to be “chronically absent” (10% or more missed school days in a year) each year. That’s based on data straight from the State Board of Education’s annual report card.

Chicago’s numbers are far worse – over 40% of CPS students were chronically absent in 2024. These kids are at risk of “academic and social problems” according to the State Board of Education.

Absenteeism skyrocketed during the covid years and has remained at elevated levels since.

Many Illinois teachers also consistently fail to show up for class, again based on state education data. Over a third of all teachers statewide were considered “chronically absent” in 2024, meaning they missed 10 school days or more during the year. The National Bureau of Economic Research warns that student outcomes decrease significantly when teachers are absent for 10 days or more.

Who are lawmakers holding accountable for this? And why aren’t they holding themselves accountable?

The Wirepoints piece continues here.

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One big reason your Illinois property taxes are so high. And why you should get a big refund.

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on March 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Too many Illinoisans have yet to connect the dots between their outrageous property taxes – the highest in the country – and the huge amount of money Illinois politicians keep pouring into K-12 education, now at $24,000 per student and highest in the Midwest. Education spending typically makes up anywhere from 50% to 70% of an Illinoisan’s property tax bill, so keeping a close eye on education spending matters.

Take a look at how fast education spending has gone up in the last 25 years. In 2000, the state spent $16.2 billion overall, including all state, local and federal dollars and covering everything from classrooms to pensions and debt. If that spending had grown at the pace of inflation, today the total K-12 spend in Illinois would be $29.5 billion.

But the actual number is far higher. It’s jumped to $43.9 billion. That’s a whopping $14.5 billion more in education spending in 2024 alone.

K-12 spending has increased by 172% since 2000, while inflation is up just 82%. For sure a big chunk of that spending increase has been the spike in pension costs for teachers and staff – some of the biggest pensions in the country – but much of it has come from a big jump in bureaucracy too, as we detail later.

That $14.5 billion is the equivalent of about 40% of all Illinois property taxes, both residential and commercial. So you can imagine what kind of property relief we could see in Illinois today if we made education spending more efficient and more affordable.

The above doesn’t consider the fact that education results are stagnant over the entire period. Only about one-third of Illinois’ students were proficient in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests back in 2003. Two decades later, the results are exactly the same. One-third are proficient.

Spending – and property taxes – have spiked by the billions while student results have flatlined.

Read more here.

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Partisan politics infiltrating non-partisan local Illinois elections (and has been for some time now)

Posted in 220, Agendas, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Capitol News Illinois, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Ethics, His Master's Voice, Open Meetings Act, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on March 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Illinois Democrats backing candidates in new (not really) strategy to get involved in all elections

By Ben Szalinski and Bridgette Fox | Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD — It’s been just four months since the last election concluded, but another election is on the horizon in Illinois: the April 1 elections for school boards and municipal offices.

Though municipal and school board races in Illinois are nonpartisan, voters may see many of the same political themes that were hallmarks of races during the 2024 presidential election cycle. The Democratic Party of Illinois is applying many of the same tactics it uses in partisan elections to this year’s local races.

“We as the Democratic Party of Illinois should be defending Democratic values in every single election in nonpartisan and partisan elections alike, because all of these local offices have jurisdiction over super critical controls and we think our party has the best platform for governance,” Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Ben Hardin said.

The 2025 local elections are the second time that Illinois Democrats are getting involved in nonpartisan races. After recruiting more than 1,000 prospective candidates last year, the state party is supporting 270 candidates for a variety of local offices in all areas of the state.

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The party trained the candidates and attached them to “coaches” experienced in running Democratic campaigns. Candidates will also be supported by a six-figure advertising campaign by DPI in the coming weeks.

“I think our voters welcome the information,” Hardin said. “They want to know, and they need to know, who the aligned candidates are.”

It’s also part of the party’s strategy to be more active year-round.

“This is how the party operates now,” Hardin said. “We are not going back to closing up shop after an even-year midterm or presidential election, lying dormant for 18 months and then coming alive again for the next even-year general election.”

Read more here.

Editorial note: This publication strongly endorses incumbent candidates Steve Wang and Katie Karam, as well as that of candidate Deanna Stern, for election to the District 220 Board of Education in the April 1st Election.

Related: “So-called voter education group — League of Women Voters — says don’t attend, engage or watch Trump speech to Congress”

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