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* From the IEA…
To coincide with the first day of early voting for Illinois school board elections the Illinois Education Association (IEA) is releasing a portion of its bipartisan annual State of Education poll. The poll finds Illinoisans are opposed to fighting and contention at school board meetings and believe our students should get an honest education.
“The vitriol that is infiltrating public education at all levels is like nothing we’ve ever seen in Illinois,” IEA President Kathi Griffin said. “Fake news and disinformation are fueling fears and that’s pitting school communities against one another, often over something that isn’t even true.”
The data show that overall:
• One in five Illinoisans say there has been fighting, yelling or contention at their local school board meeting.
• 44 percent say they have heard about fighting, yelling or contention at a school board meeting.
• 66 percent of Illinoisans say they do not approve of the fighting, yelling and contention at school board meetings.“These disruptions distract from the real issue, providing the best education for all our students. This has got to stop,” Griffin said. “School board elections are right around the corner, and there are candidates of chaos on the ballot in Illinois. They are fueled and funded by dark money groups. These candidates are looking to further disrupt and dismantle public education at all levels. We are strongly encouraging all Illinoisans to get involved, educate themselves about their local candidates and vote for those who support our students and public education.”
The IEA poll also asked respondents about Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is taught at the college level and not taught in K-12 schools, honest education and book bans.
The bipartisan poll found:
• Half of all Illinoisans oppose a law that bans CRT.
• 77 percent favor teaching about slavery in the United States and its impacts.
• 72 percent favor teaching about racism in the United States and its impacts.
• 75 percent oppose banning books in Illinois school libraries.“The people of Illinois have made it very clear they support an honest education for all of our students,” Griffin said. “They believe our students should have access to LGBTQ+ books. All of our students should know the truth about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. They should know the truth about racism as a structure in United States society, history and culture. It is through the understanding of our history that we will be able to move forward successfully and not repeat the mistakes that were made in the past.”
The poll, conducted by Normington-Petts and Next Generation Strategies, surveyed 1,000 Illinoisans between Jan. 19 and 24. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent with 95 percent confidence.
* From the poll excerpt shared this morning…
Let’s change topics again. Have you or have you not heard anything about fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings in Illinois?
Yes 44%
No 47
(Don’t know) 8To the best of your knowledge, has there been any fighting, yelling, or other contention at a school board meeting in your community?
Yes 20%
No 50
(Don’t know) 29And do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings that has been happening around the country?
Strongly favor 11%
Somewhat favor 14
Somewhat oppose 17
Strongly oppose 49
(Don’t know) 9Total favor 25%
Total oppose 66%Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose each of the following?
An Illinois state law that bans the teaching of critical race theory in public schools
Strongly favor 26%
Somewhat favor 15%
Somewhat oppose 15%
Strongly oppose 35%
(Don’t know) 9%Total favor 42%
Total oppose 50%Teaching Illinois high school students about slavery in the United States and its impacts
Strongly favor 49%%
Somewhat favor 28%
Somewhat oppose 9%
Strongly oppose 10%
(Don’t know) 4%Total favor 77%
Total oppose 19%Teaching Illinois high school students about racism and its impact in the United States
Strongly favor 46%
Somewhat favor 26%
Somewhat oppose 10%
Strongly oppose 14%
(Don’t know) 4%Total favor 72%
Total oppose 24%Banning books from Illinois school libraries
Strongly favor 11%
Somewhat favor 9%
Somewhat oppose 15%
Strongly oppose 60%
(Don’t know) 5%Total favor 20%
Total oppose 75%
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:04 am
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“…about 10 percent of Illinoisans are wackos”
Oh, I think you are being overly optimistic. /S
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:12 am
I would guess this underrepresents the whackos among us, but those 10-11% are loud and proud of their ignorance. Decent people tend to keep those sentiments quiet.
I wish it was only 10% but I’d bet the over on this one.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:13 am
=== Decent people tend to keep those sentiments quiet. ===
You mean people that want to be perceived as decent people tend to keep those sentiments quiet.
Comment by Hannibal Lecter Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:16 am
==fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings in Illinois==
It might be time for Illinois to consider taking a page from Manitoba and consider a proposal to eliminate local school boards entirely:
https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/manitoba-s-plan-to-eliminate-local-school-boards-blasted-by-trustee-1.5348457
Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:16 am
The angry, white folks that feel this thing that *they* are the aggrieved, and “by golly” they are gonna yell, scream, make an $&@ of themselves… as they deny racism, refuse to teach slavery, and can’t fathom history be … honest…
Yeah. It’s about 10%, anecdotally too, at least in family/friends I use to have respect for and now have either cut away from or tolerate by the measure of required minutes… or until my favorite aunt saves me.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:17 am
I am not a teacher, but I once took a college course that was for teachers. The reason I took it was because it was looking at incorporating primary sources and utilizing the local museum in lesson plans. My interests were history and museums.
In that class we used primary sources from the Library of Congress to make lesson plans on slavery. The term Critical Race Theory was not used at that time.
The Library of Congress resources we used were printed narratives, pictures, and audio recordings. They were profound. The lesson for us was to spark uncomfortable conversations and help students navigate those.
The term Critical Race Theory may be intimidating to some if they don’t really know what is happening in the classroom. I can’t say I know. I wonder if the teaching philosphy needs a rebranding. What I mean is, I found the resources were humanizing. Slaves were real people, not just words in a text book about people a long time ago.
Comment by Dog Lover Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:23 am
That Manitoba idea is not such a great idea when you think about accountability…
===“It’s a high degree of centralization and it’s a pretty ambitious plan,” said Brian O’Leary, superintendent of Seven Oaks School Division.
Each of the 15 regions would have a director of education, who would work with a newly established provincial education authority. It’s a responsibility O’Leary feels would be a lot for one administrator to handle.===
You think the 10% are angry “anarchist” now, imagine the idea of centralized governing all the way through to these former districts.
A better answer is keep electing thoughtful school board members AND the community rally around these folks as the wacky 10% still manifest “anger and rage”
Keep in mind too that “manufactured angst” is a grifting tool… as those like a Proft figure lives in Florida laughing at the foolish as a Proft figure grifts and grifts
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:23 am
Yeah, if you include the “somewhats,” we’re talking 20-25% happily embrace their Karenhood.
Comment by Steve Rogers Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:31 am
I give school board members a lot of props. The most thankless local elected position and also unpaid, unlike city council, county board, township trustee, etc.
We have one in college who considered secondary education for awhile. Right now she isn’t, primarily because of this crazy stuff, secondarily because of what she observed in high school out of some parents. Third factor is Tier 2 - 67 retirement age.
Have to admit I advised her of the third one, but the young people need to know the facts.
Comment by BCOSEC Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:37 am
if 10% responded that way, imagine how many don’t respond that way. frightening.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:37 am
=about 10 percent of Illinoisans are wackos=
This is quite true and we see evidence of it time and again. The problem is that we give more than 10% of our attention to these folks. I’m not suggesting that we should ignore them, but let’s not legitimize them by normalizing their behavior or elevating this to some kind of “movement.” The media seems to be a bit over indexed on not criticizing abnormal behavior. At some point you just have to call a whacko a whacko.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:40 am
How do you know what color the angry, crazy people are?
Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 9:49 am
===How do you know what color the angry, crazy people are?===
I don’t. Do you?
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:02 am
Everybody,including the IEA, have their own agenda.
As to school proficiency, there is a reason the people that can do so move out of Springfield 186 so their kids can go to Rochester or Chatham schools.
There is a reason all the non-public Springfield schools are full and have a waiting list.
There are reasons people do home schooling.
We don’t go to the meetings / get in fights, but both Mrs and myself are involved in starting another church based school. Our church has the facilities; it’s partnered with an organization that has a successful track record of opening and running schools, in the process of lining up teachers, and recruiting students to start this fall. Recognizing the demographics and the need of underserved families & students, the school will be tuition free, supported strictly by donations, etc., at least initially.
So I guess you can put us down as part of the wacko contingent.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:05 am
======How do you know…===
What I do know, between the 3%ers and the Oath Keepers jamming school board meeting where these same folks have no residency, the persons of color outside “white” seems to be small, or non-existent.
Looking at the manifestos of both groups, they seem homogeneous too.
Groups that are organizing are seeming angry… “anarchists”
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:07 am
Illinois is pretty normal, which is good news. I am not sure where this came from though: “They believe our students should have access to LGBTQ+ books.” Come on–people opposing book banning is a lot different than that conclusion. Take the W and use that momentum wisely. Saying people are pro-LGBTQ+ books is taking a big leap, to put it nicely.
Comment by Torco Sign Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:15 am
RNUG,
Good luck on your school. School board meetings have always had discussions about school proficiency, but those discussions have not typically resulted in anger, yelling, fighting etc. That is not appropriate behavior in public, I don’t care how strongly one feels about their topic, it should be discussed in public calmly.
Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:23 am
“10% of Illinois residents enthusiastically admit to being wackos” might summarize it better.
Comment by Graybeard Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:32 am
It might be a product of where and when I grew up, but if I live to be 110 I will not understand folks who feel we shouldn’t teach the ‘bad’ parts of US History.
Any relationship that is based on nothing but sunshine and rainbows (the non-threatening for some kind) is a weak relationship.
Comment by OneMan Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:32 am
RNUG, I hope the school is wildly successful, but until private schools have to educate all children, regardless of ability, disability, race, religion, income level, etc, they really do just syphon talent and resources away from the public schools. That talent is in the form of money, quality teachers, and high-achieving students.
I wish folks would put as much time into partnering with public schools to improve learning conditions for everyone instead of just improving them for the chosen few.
Comment by Travel Guy Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:48 am
During the Great Depression, The WPA, in order to employ people, did interviews with former slaves and it was quite interesting. Many of these are available on Project Gutenberg.
I had the glossed over view of slavery in school (well, many were treated as members of the family), it was much later, as I got involved in Project Gutenberg doing proofreading and read the American Anti-Slavery Association documents and other writers on the topic, that I realized that wasn’t true at all. And how much slavery had resulted in everyone elses rights being diminished, due to the constant fear of slave rebellion (or them just escaping and causing loss of $$).
I realized at that time, that everything I had every learned in history class had to be re-examined because I had been lied to.
Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:50 am
I strongly oppose Illinois wackos, or any other wackos from, well, anywhere. We, in Illinois, don’t have a monopoly on them.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:51 am
=It might be time for Illinois to consider taking a page from Manitoba and consider a proposal to eliminate local school boards entirely:=
Ever heard of the Regional Office of Education? They represent the ISBE. So already have that somewhat.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:58 am
To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “I say things just to mess with pollsters.” a. Strongly agree; b. somewhat agree; c. somewhat disagree; d. strongly disagree; e. Don’t know; f. Does not matter because whatever I say I’m just messing with the pollster on this question, too.”
Comment by The Ford Lawyer Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:01 am
To the Post:
“The vitriol that is infiltrating public education at all levels is like nothing we’ve ever seen in Illinois..”
Not just public education - all levels of local government. I have never in my life seen it as bad as it is now.
One immediate fix would be to eliminate public comment requirements for local meetings. For every one person with an informed comment, there are 30 people screaming conspiracy theories/threats/ad-hominem attacks.
Participatory democracy does not require handing a hot microphone over to the mob for the first hour of every government meeting.
Comment by sulla Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:02 am
Good. With these numbers, the loud and bigoted minority needs to be repelled politically. They can move out of Illinois and to a state where politicians would trip over themselves to indulge their hateful delusions, like CRT is being taught in K-12 to make white kids hate themselves and be ashamed.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:20 am
In business I always found 10% of my employees were overachievers, 80% were somewhere along the spectrum of overachiever to problem and 10% were problems (unfortunately 95% of my time seemed to be focused on this 10%). In the community this theory plays out between the volunteers and doers which is about 10%, the live my life and leave alone group being the 80% and 10% being the chronic complainers and rable rousers. So the 10% wacko number does not surprise me and would be within this statistical norm. The problem is this 10% seems to get all the attention from media etc. so it feels like they represent more people than they do.
Comment by illinifan Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:26 am
sulla, Or at least have public comments be reading (dramatic or otherwise) of people’s written comments. That satisfies the democracy requirement without also resulting in emotional overload.
Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:27 am
I long for the days that the aggrieved sports parents were the main whackos.
Comment by Occasionally Moderated Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:39 am
==In that class we used primary sources from the Library of Congress to make lesson plans on slavery. The term Critical Race Theory was not used at that time.==
Probably because what you’re referring to is not and never has been Critical Race Theory, which is also not taught in any primary or secondary education institution in the state of Illinois.
Comment by /s Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:41 am
== I wish folks would put as much time into partnering with public schools … ==
I can’t speak for other organizations, but for years our church *has* partnered with the neighborhood elementary school, promoting reading AND quietly providing various & sundry supplies to the school itself, so some of the supplies can be redistributed to the disadvantaged families with children in that school.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:59 am
== I say things just to mess with pollsters ==
We don’t participate in polls. Oh course, that’s just another way of messing with the pollsters.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 12:02 pm
When politicians (or at least people who run for public office), when news outlets (or those like Profts that pretend to be), continue to peddle false hoods, lies and other stuff in order to feed a particular segment..to play on their emotions and beliefs, then this will continue to happen. It usually takes two (the Baileys and Proft types) and the gullible, angry person who believes that they have the right to tell everyone else how to live their lives.
When someone yells freedom, but it is freedom only to live your life based on what that someone believes, then it is anything but freedom.
As they used to say: never trust anyone over 30.
Comment by Appears Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 12:31 pm
RNUG,
Will you school educate all children who apply, or will their be criteria for admittance?
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 12:56 pm
I propose creating Wacko County, Illinois…where 10%ers can freely swap the wack with one another…WHEEEE!
Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 1:55 pm
== Will you school educate all children who apply, or will their be criteria for admittance? ==
We’ve have discussions on what we can and can’t offer from a practical standpoint. The building is, for the portion we will initially be using, handicap accessible / ADA compliant. The only thing we don’t have to start with is a commercial kitchen, so we’re still wrestling with if / how to provide a lunch program. We recognize this could be an issue, but we’ve got a few months to figure it out.
As to admittance, the current plan is anyone from the neighborhood that applies. Want it to be neighborhood based and not just open to whoever can buy their way in. We intend to do tuition free, because the demographics of the neighborhood won’t work if (typical) tuition is charged.
But we also recognize we won’t be able to match the Special Education alternatives the school district has in place. Trying to be realistic. There are plans for extra help getting underachievers up to grade level in reading and math, but it is unlikely the school will be able to accommodate all Special Needs. Don’t expect us, at least in the first years, to be able to accommodate IEP’s, etc. And it will be associated with a church, so we recognize there may be a self exclusion factor.
I don’t know if that is answer you are looking for, but if we try to do too much too fast, it will fail. Even with the church and some other organizations helping, there is only so much you can achieve with limited funds. So you do what you can, and hope it makes a difference.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 2:13 pm
AWAKE Illinois has agitated many a board member in the western suburbs. I’m waiting for the SPLC to assign AWAKE hate group status.
Comment by Politix Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 2:31 pm
RNUG, appreciate the answer. Above all, your heart seems in the right place. And most importanly, your organization does seem interested in helping everyone as opposed to a chosen few.
Still, I can’t help to wonder if that money is better spent giving your local school district the funding it needs. Anyway, I join the others in wishing you good luck and success on your endevour.
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 2:37 pm
As to people choosing schools by proficient scores…that has been a proxy for avoiding racial and class integration with saying that is what is being done. It is the sorting and segregating of schools along those lines when focusing on those scores.
Comment by DTownResident Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 2:50 pm
=But we also recognize we won’t be able to match the Special Education alternatives the school district has in place.=
That’s a pretty big void. As a parent of an elementary school aged kid I can tell you that the need for differentiated instruction, what you might call Special Education, is significant amongst him and his peers. I’ve experienced the delivery of this in both the private and public school systems. While the execution isn’t always the best I can tell you that the public school system is vastly superior when it comes to delivering differentiated learning. And the need for that in disadvantaged communities is even higher. So while I would not suggest at all that your model is discriminatory, it is targeted to a very narrow band of students.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 3:00 pm
== And the need for that in disadvantaged communities is even higher … ==
It may not be as narrow as you assume. To use general terms as descriptors, the demographics for the neighborhood could be described as about 1/2 half solidly middle class and half lower middle class, with a portion bordering on poverty level. Some currently attend public school, some attend one or more private church based schools, plus some home schooling. Just depends on where and how you want to draw the lines. The nearby neighborhood school is about half poverty level, but you have to remember the whole busing program the school district has that partially negates the concept of a neighborhood school.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 3:13 pm
The poll says 10% of Illinoisans are whacko. The poll must have a +/- error rate of 40%
Comment by Groucho Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 3:27 pm
RNUG, I ask this with all due respect, but what will your school be teaching? Will you be teaching evolution or “creation science?” How will you teach American history?
Comment by G'Kar Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:25 pm
== what will your school be teaching? ==
They will be following one of the standard home school curriculums.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 11:27 pm
“I hate Illinois wackos.” — Jake
Comment by Skeptic Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 9:55 am