SPRINGFIELD – Please attribute the following message to Karl Goeke, president of the Illinois Education Association:
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“Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and parsing its duties out to various agencies allows our neediest students and all students’ rights to be ignored. It’s insulting, frankly, that this plan would be presented during American Education Week, a week founded in 1919 by the National Education Association and the American Legion to seek ways to generate support for public education in honor of our country’s World War I soldiers.
“This is the latest attack against our students. This administration has brought fear into our schools by sending ICE agents into our neighborhoods and schools, They’ve brought hunger into our classrooms and homes by cutting SNAP benefits and then halting their distribution altogether. They’ve cut Department of Education jobs and state funding all in an attempt to privatize public education and profit off our students and their families.
“Congress founded the education department to guarantee equal access to public education for ALL students, no matter their geography, their color, their economic status or their physical ability. This administration’s plan to destroy it is part of Project 2025, a plan developed by the Heritage Foundation to benefit the ultra-rich, consolidate power and establish extreme policies.
“We know from our own polling in the State of Education in Illinois report that 91% of Illinoisans believe that students have a right to public education and 92% believe every child with a disability has the same right. And, only 11% believe politicians should have a voice in how public schools operate.
“America’s students deserve to succeed and need more opportunities to do so, not fewer. It’s important to remember that 90% of our students and 95% of our students with disabilities learn in public schools. It’s a fundamental right and a premise our country is based upon.
“The education department plays an imperative role in that success. Its programs support our most vulnerable students in rural areas, in suburbs and in cities. Parsing programs out to agencies that do not have expertise in the education field harms ALL students.”
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