Back to School for the IL-GOP

OAK LAWN, IL — As we enter the holiday season, children are counting the days until Christmas break begins, and the holiday cheer brings smiles and gifts. It is the smile of a child that gives us hope and makes all the long days and nights worth it.

That wasn’t the case in 2020 and 2021. Children were not smiling; they were going through a once in a lifetime pandemic that paralyzed the world and its leaders. There were casualties as governmental parliamentary procedures were suspended and edicts ruled the land.

As a member of district 229 at the time, we complied out of fear and funding. After one school board meeting, we had our student counselors in to discuss the topic of increased mental health issues with our students. Prior to that we had some students lash out as they phoned in bomb threats, it was clearly a sign or a call for help. It took several lawsuits and one massive lawsuit by parents to break the edicts and restore rules of engagement that our elected officials decided to ignore. This is the identity that the GOP needs to adopt, THE PARENTS PARTY! And of course, it starts right back at the scene of the crime… school boards.

“It starts with identity. Illinois Republicans don’t have a coherent one” was a line out of a Tribune article written on November 11th 2022 Editorial: After state GOP’s disastrous midterms, the way forward is clear. Break free from far right politics. – Chicago Tribune

The party watched as parents from both sides of the aisle came together in the fury only a mama and papa bear could have for their cub. They questioned procedure, method and pointed out results that the school boards simply ignored. Only when these boards were pushed by legal action did they conform, with several members across the state commenting “how they never really agreed with it to begin with.”

Sadly, the party leadership did not embrace this gathering as they did in VA and FLA. The media called us “extremists” and “domestic terrorists” while pushing the cancel culture towards anyone who stepped out of the COVID line. Where was the party when board members were being removed via resolution for standing up to the status quo?

Fast-forward to a recent Washington Post article dated December 5th, 2022, describing the exact issue so many parents highlighted during the school board wars

“Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy called out the “devastating” effects of the pandemic on youth mental health in a public advisory last December. Earlier that year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association together declared “a national state of emergency” in children’s mental health.” The crisis of student mental health is much vaster than we realize - The Washington Post

One would think the April school board elections would have mama and papa bears alike ready to step up and challenge existing board members throughout IL so that this will never happen again. If the IL-GOP wants to impact the political space in IL, it should begin at the local level first. This is something that is very clear to me now after everything I have experienced and attempted. Our team is not ready to compete without a stronger base, and our party has a foundation of sand instead of stone. The beauty of America is all of that can change in a quick period of time, but we need to form an identity first, one that puts the CHILDREN FIRST!

On the other side of the coin of having the majority on school boards is the levy requested from property tax owners. Another excerpt from the tribune article dated November 11th, 2022, reads:

“Second, the Illinois GOP needs to sharpen its focus on everything that’s wrong with Democratic dominance in Springfield. The state’s pension debt is estimated to reach $143 billion this year, according to the Reason Foundation, and Democrats have ignored the best and only fix — structural pension reform that finally remedies what for years has been Illinois’ biggest existential crisis. Democrats also have done nothing to ease the property tax burden that weighs heavily on Illinoisans at a time of stifling inflation. The Illinois GOP must do a much better job positioning itself as the sensible counterpoint to Democrats’ addiction to tax-and-spend governance. And there is no downside to pledging to try to keep voters safe from violent crime”

How can the GOP fix the property tax burden if it does not support any majority school boards north of I-80? Recently our tax assessments came out in Cook County with major increases across the board. Some areas of Cook showed a 46% increase, according to another Tribune article (Chicago property taxes: 4 things driving up your bills (chicagotribune.com). For reference, in 2012 county board president Toni Preckwinkle proposed a budget of 2,900,000,000 billion dollars. The budget being suggested in 2022 is $16.9 billion. That is a 582% increase over 10 years. Preckwinkle Submits FY 2012 Budget to County Board (cookcountyil.gov)

In other collar counties things are significantly worse off than they were 10 years ago, Will County’s budget in 2012 was $62 million. The 2022 approved budget is $255 million which is an increase of 411% over 10 years. WC Finance Department (willcountyillinois.com) DuPage County’s budget in 2012 was $166,000,000. The last approved budget for 2022 was $474,000,000 that is an increase of a meager 285% over 10 years. DuPage County IL - Finance - Budget Reports. Between 65 and 75% of the property taxes are awarded to school board levies. This is the work that progressive democrats have put in over the last decade to build the base they needed to dominate IL politics.

So, it's time for the IL-GOP to roll up its sleeves and go back to school to forge an identity that stands with parents and taxpayers to solve the issues that face Illinoisans today in the local elections first. Only then will we begin to start seeing success in November.