Illinois folks, check to see if this nonsense is on your ballot. I saw it on mine when looking at my sample ballot and immediately knew it was going to confuse the hell out of people.

A stealth referendum question about federal school vouchers may be on your March 17th ballot! We urge all voters to vote NO. Here’s more info, including if your county (or, in a few cases, your township) will have the ballot question: www.ilfps.org/votenovouchers 🧵

“The federal voucher tax credit may not change anyone’s tax bill much, but it signals a clear shift in priorities. Instead of fully funding public schools, the federal government is experimenting with privatization — even as classrooms remain under-resourced and students’ needs go unmet.”

Ann Courter @lwvil.bsky.social, “argued that the federal program would hurt public schools and that the money from the program would largely flow to private religious schools, comparing the program to Invest in Kids, a tax credit scholarship program in Illinois that lawmakers sunset in 2023.”

A proposed class-action settlement with Google over their “real-time bidding” system is a step in the right direction to give people more control over their data. But truly curbing the harms of surveillance-based advertising will require stronger legislative protections. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

TRO on $10B freeze on childcare funding ends Feb 6th… “Families are already doing everything they can to get by. These disruptions are cruel.” open.substack.com/pub/mrsfrazz...

“Instead of following court orders and federal law, the Trump Administration chose to keep these civil rights professionals on paid administrative leave rather than letting them do their jobs, while students, families, and schools paid the price.” www.k12dive.com/news/educati...

Stand up to bullies.

"The human cost of harsh immigration enforcement is disgusting” said Luis Delgado, a 16yo student. “These masked Nazi agents terrorize our schools. No, we will not allow them any longer. Chicago, Minneapolis & other cities around this country—we are fed up.” blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/02/h...

DePaul College of Education Winter Virtual Forum: School Communities Organize: Supporting Immigrant Students & Families - Thursday, February 26th 5:30 to 7 p.m. (CT) Register: www.eventbrite.com/e/school-com...

Join our partners on Feb. 5th to learn more about the federal voucher program & receive the tools to advocate for your state to opt out of this program — which harms our public schools, students, and communities: 🔗 us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

“By the way, we spend a lot of money on education and the test scores didn't go up, so we need to send money to unaccountable unregulated schools to make a better future for America.” 💀 @palan57.bsky.social curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2026/01/amer...

“‘…we heard from many families who expressed concerns and shared that they were considering keeping their children home’… We don’t know precisely what concerns were expressed, but consider the subtext: Parents don’t trust that their children are safe in a room with the U.S. Dept of Ed secretary.”

I just got tear gassed along with thousands of union members, many of whom had their families with them. Federal agents at the ICE facility tear gassed children. We must abolish ICE, DHS, and we must have prosecutions. I expect to see enforcement of our city code prohibiting the use of tear gas.

Thought-provoking weekend read…and we’re not skipping the comments on this one.

😱 ICYMI: American Federation for Children (AFC)—founded & funded by Betsy DeVos to promote anti-public school legislation & policies launched a nat’l scholarship granting organization (aka voucher middleman). $10M initial bankroll for “ambitious” Trump federal school vouchers awareness campaign.

"Duha Hamed, a UIC lecturer of mathematics, statistics and computer science, said Thursday her analysis shows about 34% of district students come from Arabic speaking households." www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/o...

“As private school choice programs expanded over the last 10 years, they enrolled proportionately fewer students with disabilities and students from low-income families, ‘exacerbating disparities based on income and race as well as disability status and geography’…”

“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” principal Jason Kuhlman said about the second grader and fifth grader.

We call on all public school supporters to join our efforts and call Governor Pritzker today to ask him to make a public commitment that Illinois will NOT participate in the federal voucher program because of the grave harm the program would bring to Illinois’ public schools!

Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account Libs of TikTok, has spent the days following Alex Pretti’s killing doxxing ordinary working people — teachers, nurses, school board members — for speaking out against federal immigration officials or expressing sympathy for Pretti.

THIS cannot be overemphasized. @palan57.bsky.social

Newly updated today: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

NO FEDERAL SCHOOL VOUCHERS FOR ILLINOIS is front page news! Vouchers are bad education policy—they hurt equity and fund discrimination without improving academic outcomes. Vouchers lack the accountability and oversight provided by public school systems. #publicfundspublicschools

MEDIA RELEASE: Coalition Urges Governor Pritzker To Say No To Federal School Vouchers www.ilfps.org/coalit... #schoolchoice = wrong choice for American taxpayers.

"The school privatization PR stunt is a pet project of the Gleason family and Koch family fortunes." @npeaction.bsky.social @pfpsorg.bsky.social @publicedpartners.bsky.social @ilfps.bsky.social @propublica.org @network4pubed.bsky.social @publiced412.bsky.social truthout.org/articles/mil...

“We believe that as a public good, public dollars should fund public schools,” said Huu Nguyen, a board member at Illinois Families for Public Schools. “School voucher programs that take tax dollars to fund private education are the antithesis of public policy that supports the common good.”

Video from this morning shows ICE agents deploying tear gas outside a Minneapolis preschool as parents shout, “This is a preschool! There’s kids here!”

This morning, we delivered a letter signed by 45+ pro-public school organizations to Governor Pritzker calling on him to act on his values and commit to opting Illinois out of a new federal school voucher program championed by the Trump administration. #NOvouchers4IL

Some ed-tech tools emphasise gamification at the expense of education, meaning that children focus more on winning points than mastering concepts. There are more insidious issues, too

Bracing for the start of "school choice" week and want fact based, pro-public ed updates sent to your inbox? Sign up for our email list here: ilfps.org/get_updates

Trump's federal tax credit voucher program is not FREE MONEY like Governor Polis insists. Watch this expert panel explain how this voucher scheme will harm public school funding and push students to private and religious schools. @joshcowenmi.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKcE...

Already-anxious parents say their kids, who are U.S. citizens, are missing not just school but also therapy appointments to avoid encountering potentially hostile federal agents. #disabilities #Minneapolis #ICE

We need an immediate and concerted effort to keep federal vouchers out of Illinois! We've put together resources for you to learn the facts about the program and let lawmakers know we don’t want federal vouchers. Please take a few minutes to act & then share. Everything is linked below!

Public schools serve all students. Private voucher schools discriminate against students based on disability, religion, sexual orientation, ability to pay, & more. During #SchoolChoiceWeek, say no discrimination and join the conversation on Feb 5:

Hundreds of Michigan school districts rejected school safety and mental health funding from the state after agreeing to new conditions for receiving the money. Here's why: ckbe.at/4a9QAMx

Many, many ways to help including crowdfunding for schools and students, updated daily: www.standwithminnesota.com

10% of students with IEPs (so lower bound on # of SWDs) in IL public schools is ~29,000 students!!! www.illinoisreportcard.com/State.aspx?s...

a colleague and i are working toward filing another Systemic State Complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education and we can already sense that because the federal oversight body is weak, Illinois has also adopted a weak stance on enforcement to the detriment to any student with a disability

"'All I know is America, so seeing everything that’s going on, seeing my family ripped apart, seeing kids being snatched, an innocent woman shot for standing up for what’s right, it’s all surreal.'” inthesetimes.com/article/minn...

"Gutting a federal agency tasked with overseeing civil rights enforcement is not the solution. Rather, it reverts us to a time when all children did not have access to justice — and it abandons the nearly 25,000 students awaiting that justice today."

This is sure to be a great webinar for updates on the Trump-backed federal voucher program and advocacy resources to urge states to NOT to opt into the harmful program. February 5 at 3 p.m. ET. Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

4/4 "In those districts with widespread federal activity, as many as 20 to 40 percent of students have been absent in recent weeks."

VERY comprehensive @mprnews.org @eshockmanwrites.bsky.social roundup of how the surge of federal agents in MN is impacting schools, students and educators. Numerous reports of children detained by masked agents. 1/

One study found that on campuses with officers present, more people died in shootings than at schools without police. The study didn’t look at cases where the shooter was stopped before firing, but cases of officers or even armed bystanders thwarting potential shooters are rare.

The first Propaganda Trucks from the IMLS–whitewashed history invented by stealing YOUR tax money away from actual libraries and museums in the US–are making their first stop. www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

“We know something’s going to happen somewhere, and when it does, can you give yourself and your students grace? These are unprecedented times, so we might not get it right, right away.” www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

“But the data shows a spike in releases from detention clustered around the 20-day benchmark, which former Department of Homeland Security staffers say indicates the government is choosing to hold families as long as possible to increase the likelihood of deporting them directly from detention”