EDUCATION REFORM

School children across Illinois are living with bigger class sizes, old textbooks, crumbling buildings and cuts in core classes and extracurricular activities. That's because Illinois' method of funding education creates some of the worst inequities in the nation.

What Voices for Illinois Children is Doing

Our advocacy on education policy centers around statewide collaborative efforts to reform school funding and improve educational quality, goals which are more important than ever considering Illinois’ ongoing fiscal crisis. 

Voices supports a policy agenda that would improve the learning of all students by ensuring every school, regardless of location, has the resources necessary to help kids succeed. Our policy recommendations include:

• Raising the State Board of Education’s share of state and local sources
• Increasing state support for school districts with high concentrations of low-income students
• Targeting resources more effectively to improve student learning

All students, given highest-quality teachers and attention to out-of-classroom physical and social-emotional issues, can compete and succeed in a global economy. Illinois’ future depends on meeting that challenge.

What You Can Do

Contact your legislators and tell them it's time for a long-term, comprehensive solution that improves education quality and funding.

You can also make a donation to Voices for Illinois Children, sign up for news updates or join a Voices Leadership Committee.

Learn More

• FACT SHEET on the ACT Now legislation which bolsters after-school programs by mapping a course for improved access, quality and coordination.  The ACT Now legislation establishes a Youth Advisory Council to guide this work.
• FACT SHEET  on the improvement of early childhood facilities' access to $45 million in capital funding that's necessary for building new classrooms and renovating existing ones.
• Read the 2009 Illinois Kids Count data book, Education for the 21st Century
• Read testimony for the Illinois House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee given by Voices' President Jerry Stermer  
  
• Read about the vital link between education and human services in the “One Child, Many Needs” issue brief
  
• Access county-level data on education issues in the “Illinois Kids Count 2005: Twelve Ways to Improve Learning” report
  
• See the 2009 Policy Agenda

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