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

Sign up below to get event and info updates on this issue

Despite the fact that the federal government does not require standardized math and reading tests for students in grades K-2, the IL State Board of Ed is considering a proposal that would expand the state testing system to include those grades. They will be voting soon on this proposal, which would also increase 3-8th grade state math and reading testing to three times a year instead of once, in addition to paying for districts to give these tests to our youngest learners—when there’s absolutely no federal requirement to do so!

New research shared in Ed Week recently confirms what ed experts have been saying for years, which is that tying teacher and admin evaluations to student test scores is deeply unfair in inequitable school systems, harmful to school culture, and not beneficial to student achievement. Researchers from Brown, Michigan State, University of Connecticut and UNC Chapel Hill analyzed a multitude of data from 2009 to 2018 and found no evidence that this policy had even a small positive effect on student achievement. 

IL School Librarians Burdened by FOIA Request re “1619 Project”

As we’ve been sharing with you, school boards and school districts have been under serious attack by right-wing groups recently. So much so that the National Association of School Boards have asked the Biden Administration for help from federal law enforcement. School boards here in Illinois have faced confrontations over mask requirements, vaccines and how to teach about race. 

The letter from the NASB to Biden mentions that in September in Mendon, IL a man was arrested for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct, which according to the Associated Press was for allegedly striking a school official at a school board meeting.