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Illinois finished 50th, ahead of D.C. but behind every other
state.
“It’s terrible leadership. It’s Democrats that are at the behest
of teachers unions,” Defending Education Director of Government
Affairs Terry Stoops told Greg Bishop on The States, The Center
Square's daily news program.
“Just as cell phones are physical distractions in the classroom,
we have ideology that is really distractions inside the
classroom,” Stoops said.
Stoops said the report is not necessarily saying "woke" is bad.
“It’s trying to say, ‘Listen, woke is getting in the way of
prioritizing academic performance, student achievement,’ which
is what our public schools really need to be about,” Stoops
said.
According to the Institute of Education Sciences Report on the
Condition of Education 2026, Illinois public schools spent more
than $25,000 per student during the 2022-23 school year, far
more than neighboring states.
Enrollment, meanwhile, dropped 10% from 2014 to 2024.
Stoops said citizens are leaving due to teachers union politics.
“They’re tired of seeing their taxes go up and their schools get
worse and worse, represented really by the worst the teachers
unions have to offer,” Stoops said.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Illinois
Report Card for 2024-2025, 52.4% of the state’s K-12 students
were proficient in ELA and 38.4% were proficient in math.
Tennessee finished first in the Defending Education rankings,
followed by Alabama, Florida and North Carolina. Iowa was fifth.
Greg Bishop contributed to this story
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