We'll provide a quick training over Zoom at 6pm with everything you need to have successful conversations on this important issue. And we'll raffle off a fun @raygunshirts.bsky.social tee, so a lucky caller can rep their support for public schools!
About 10% of IL voters will have this non-binding measure on their ballot and we want them to make an informed choice. If they believe that public funds are for public schools, they should vote NO on vouchers for Illinois!
Dark teal background, text reading: Help spread the word about a misleading pro-voucher question on IL primary ballots!/Tuesday, March 10, 6pm/ MAKE THE CALL for PUBLIC Schools/ We’re reaching out to voters to say: Vote NO on federal vouchers for Illinois! Public dollars must be for public schools!Graphic of a phone and a schoolhouse/ bit.ly/3_10callsforschools Image of a blue t-shirt with “Strong Schools = Strong Communities” printed on it in white with text reading: We're raffling off this rad Raygun shirt, so a lucky caller can keep showing their public school support!
Help us let voters know there’s a misleading pro-voucher question on their primary ballot, orchestrated by the Illinois Policy Institute (an ultra-conservative, anti-public school org funded by rightwing billionaires) as a ploy to garner support for federal vouchers. RSVP bit.ly/3_10callsforschools
“Yet people who…talk about some magical ‘AI’ future insist they're the realists; & the ones who want to fund schools & not the military, hire teachers not buy tech gadgets, build a future that cares for people not profits—we’re the dreamers.” 2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/there-is-no-...
"Lunchroom workers are the lowest paid workers in CPS. 88 percent can’t meet basic necessities. 67 percent reported having trouble paying for food and make $22k less than a CPS custodian. 90.7 percent lunchroom workers are people of color" secondcityteachers.substack.com/p/corrupt-ch...
Join us NEXT WEEK!
🚨 Illinois may appear strong in overall school funding, but when it comes to distributing dollars equitably, the state still falls short.
🗓️ Join the conversation on March 10 at 1 PM to explore what must change.
Register today: go.uic.edu/MakingTheGrade
…50 minutes of math, 40 minutes of English and history, 20 minus of independent reading or typing and 20 minutes of independent math, along with a 1.5 hour science lab each week. The remainder of the day spent in religious studies and prayer sessions.
Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, a Chicago boarding school that opened in 2019, has a massively long school day (7:45am - 9:30pm) BUT just over two hours of academic, non-religious instruction per day…
🚨 🧵 This religious boarding school, Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, was an Illinois Invest in Kids voucher recipient AND one of our low-quality curriculum horror story schools. 1/3 of students used public dollar school vouchers.
Vouchers = public dollars, no public oversight
…50 minutes of math, 40 minutes of English and history, 20 minus of independent reading or typing and 20 minutes of independent math, along with a 1.5 hour science lab each week. The remainder of the day is spent in religious studies and prayer sessions.
Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, a Chicago boarding school that opened in 2019, has a massively long school day (7:45am - 9:30pm) BUT just over two hours of academic, non-religious instruction per day…
"Vouchers keep losing at the ballot box. So how do they keep winning?" Billionaires like the Waltons and Reed Hastings bankroll the “parent choice” machine-Lobbying, messaging for new tax-credit voucher schemes that siphon public funds. Read: tinyurl.com/38vp7cp7 @edlawcenter.bsky.social
"Billionaire John Walton, son of Sam Walton of Wal-Mart and the richest family in the US," co-founded the nation’s two largest scholarships granting organizations...Most of their scholarships go to students who leave public schools to attend religious schools." @edlawcenter.bsky.social
“The document shows in stark terms the power, and potential risk, of online advertising data and how it can be leveraged by government agencies for surveillance purposes.” www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
This is exactly right.
Age verification / online ID check legislation literally forces companies to collect MORE data on children (and everyone else) not less.
We desperately need privacy, antitrust, and algorithmic justice legislation.
Not censorship bills like KOSA and expanded surveillance.
“If the federal government doesn’t want to be involved in education, why are they pushing these vouchers on states that have already defeated the use of vouchers? We need to invest more in public schools rather than give opt-outs to our public schools.” -Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, EVP, @iftaft.bsky.social
“Maybe things aren’t changing all that fast? And/or maybe these stories don’t represent political progress? Maybe all this talk about ‘the future’—a future that’s bound up in robot teachers and ‘AI’ tutors—is actually deeply reactionary? Deeply misogynistic. Deeply racist.”
“What is going on that the inspiration for ‘the future’ these men keep promoting is darkly dystopian science fiction?! Why are these the stories that are guiding them, shaping how they imagine the school of tomorrow &…the school of right now, today.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-is-yester...
As we continue to urge Governor Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly to reject the new federal school voucher program for Illinois, we're looking forward to this webinar that will spotlight strategies to successfully push back on vouchers.
“We are not fated to meaningless grading systems…’Grading practices can encourage students not to cheat but to learn, to persevere when they fail and not lose hope, and to take more ownership and agency for their achievement.’”
open.substack.com/pub/spencerl...
"...these chatbots do not generally carry the same privacy protections of conversations w/a licensed therapist. And when concerns about student privacy and encounters w/the police are high, use of these tools raise 'messy' privacy concerns, even when supervised by people with clinical training."
"What advocates want to prevent is these bots fueling the loss of social skills because they pull people away from relationships with other people, where they have social accountability."
Even though it’s a non-binding measure, it is critical that our efforts to keep vouchers out of IL aren’t muddied by an uninformed vote for this pro-voucher ploy. We'd love to have you help Make the Call this Tuesday to protect public schools in Illinois!
We're phone banking for public schools AGAIN next Tuesday, March 10th, at 6pm! We’re raring to reach more voters to ensure they’re not misled by the deceitful pro-voucher question that’s on about 10% of Illinois primary election ballots.
Sign up here: bit.ly/3_10callsforschools
never, ever, ever, ever accept "how will you pay for it?" as an argument against social programs.
You can also mention that you want them to oppose the bad bill, SB 3776, which would permanently opt Illinois into the harmful federal voucher program.
Let us know what you hear from your Senator's office!
SB 3966, the good bill that prohibits Illinois from participating in the federal voucher program, was introduced by Sen. Graciela Guzmán and is also co-sponsored by Sen. Rachel Ventura, so if either Sen. Guzmán or Sen. Ventura is your senator, tell them thank you when you make your call!
The Illinois Senate will be in session in Springfield both this week and next. (The House doesn't return until after the primary election.) There are now two bills about the federal voucher program, both introduced by Democrats in the Senate—one good and one bad!
Light red background with a large tan speech bubble with black shadow. Black graphic of a small circle with a phone receiver inside. Text: take action; SPONSOR SB 3966—opt Illinois OUT of the federal voucher program; Vouchers divert public dollars to private schools. We've seen vouchers before in Illinois, and they funded discrimination and hurt education equity. Illinois should fully fund its public schools, not sign up for some financial gimmickry from the Trump administration that's just a facade to cover up using vouchers to dismantle public schools.; call your state senator; no federal vouchers for Illinois; ilfps.org
Please take two minutes this week to call your state senator and ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor of SB 3966, a good bill that prohibits Illinois from participating in the federal voucher program—sample script on this post graphic. Find your legislator here: bit.ly/find_my_lL_legislator.
Blue textured background. There is a map of the US in the middle where the following states are highlighted orange: Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. Text reads: 9 states are suing the US government to threaten disability rights in a case called Texas v Kennedy. Here’s what you need to know and how you can take action!
Blue textured background with a white box with text. Text reads: WHAT IS TEXAS V KENNEDY? Texas v Kennedy is about Section 504 rules. Section 504 is an important law that says groups who get money from the US government cannot discriminate against disabled people. Law and rules are different. The new lawsuit does not want to get rid of the Section 504 law. The Section 504 law says that you can’t discriminate against disabled people if you get money from the United States government. The Section 504 rules explain what disability discrimination is. Texas v Kennedy is only about the Section 504 rules.
Blue textured background. Text reads: WHAT DO THE SECTION 504 RULES DO? The main rule that states are suing over in Texas v Kennedy is called the integration mandate. The integration mandate says that all people with disabilities have a right to live, work, and get services in the community. When we say “the community”, we mean places that are not only for disabled people. The integration mandate means that disabled people cannot be forced to live in institutions if we can live in the community instead.
Blue textured background. Text reads: WHAT DO THE SECTION 504 RULES DO? But the integration mandate isn’t the only rule under threat in Texas v Kennedy. If the states suing have their way, other important rules will go away, including rules that: Protect disabled people from discrimination when we go to the doctor; Stop doctors from making choices about our medical treatment because they have bad opinions about our disabilities; Make sure that medical equipment like exam tables and x-ray machines are accessible to people with disabilities; And much more.
Disability rights are under attack! Check out our plain language action alert to learn about Texas v Kennedy, a lawsuit about Section 504 rules. autisticadvocacy.org/2026/02/take...
@newdisabledsouth.org
