It’s no secret that the political climate as of late has been troubling to say the least. In the midst of all the fighting between Democrats and Republicans it becomes difficult to see what they even agree on anymore. The one thing that they do have in common, however, is throwing education policy under the bus. 

The state of Illinois, despite having one of the best public schools in the nation, doesn’t have the best track record with education policy, especially when it comes to equity. In this day and age we desperately need better education policies which has always been an issue with the Illinois school board.

During the 2020 pandemic, the world was turned upside down. Schools were forced into a very precarious situation when it came to finding out how to address thousands of students virtually. 

During the 2020–2021 school year over 25,000  kids lost contact with their schools and teachers. Neighborhoods with low funded schools like Englewood and schools in Chicago’s south side. Even after the pandemic we can still see the lasting effects with kids reading a grade level behind. 

Any attempts to remedy this problem have been met with mere lip service or simply outright dismissal. Instead funds are used to bloat the pockets of the higher ups of Illinois school board  administration. 

This is nothing new unfortunately. Democrats have an issue with showing up to poor communities and promising the world just to get into power just to do absolutely nothing. Republicans aren’t that much better in this regard with their active disdain for new education policies like SEL(social emotional learning) in fear of bringing a leftist “agenda” to schools. 

Both parties are doing education a disservice with their respective approaches to education policy and if we are going to keep moving forward into this world we can’t afford to leave any children behind.