It’s been a long first week of presidential executive orders targeting the public good and our neighbors, our families, ourselves. Monday’s late night illegal federal spending freeze​ was halted by a court challenge on Tuesday. For now the memo instigating that freeze has been rescinded​ (although not the orders it was meant to implement) due to widespread public outrage and pushback.

The deadline for passing bills out of the Illinois House and over to the Senate is this Friday 4/19. Here are two bills that IL-FPS has been following closely, and we encourage you to call your state rep about both of them.

Decades of systematic racism have generated harmful inequities in our Illinois public school system. How can we confront both racism and inequity in public schools and help build healthier education systems for all students?

Join educators and advocates for an important look at the impact of systematic racism on school funding, curriculum and overall school culture. Learn about critical steps communities can take towards making Illinois public school education equitable for all.

Throughout the country and in Illinois, we have seen the rise of well-funded disinformation campaigns targeting school boards and educators on issues including: covid mitigation measures; diversity-equity-inclusion programs; accurate information in teaching about race and racial injustice in the present and past; support and civil rights of LGBTQ+ students; comprehensive sex education; and more.

These campaigns are often not truly grassroots, but funded by organizations on the right that have long supported privatizing and defunding the public school system, with support for vouchers, charters and funding cuts. 

In response, around the state, parents and others have been organizing in their communities. They've been standing up for inclusion, safety, fact-based curricula in order to ensure all students are provided with an educational environment where they can flourish and to defend the public good that is a thriving public school system.

Below we have resources to support you in this work, and we'll be adding more in the coming weeks and months. Please reach out if you have questions or want help connecting with others in your community engaging in similar efforts! Email us at [email protected] and sign up below to get on our mailing list.

Confronting the Rise of School Board Disruptions - Jan 27 2022

This virtual event by IL-FPS and Indivisible IL and an array of state and local cosponsors covered: Who’s behind the disinformation campaign around masks/vaccines mandates, an erosion of LGBTQ+ rights and the way race is being taught in our schools? How can we band together to support our school boards and staff who are being threatened and to protect public education? 

Find the slides for the presentations here

Toolkit of resources in doc form

Watch the recording here or on YouTube:

Other state and local organizations working in this area

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These recommendations are intended as a resource to assist students and families, teachers, administrators, school board members and others, whether they are writing, revising or advocating for improvement of policies covering the role of tech in students’ remote learning experiences.

As families across Illinois cope with adapting to life and learning during the Covid-19 epidemic, we were contacted by a group of parents and community members in Waukegan who are going through a particularly difficult struggle with their district.