In remarks to teachers union, Pritzker lashes out at Trump’s education
cuts
[March 14, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday delivered more harsh
criticism against President Donald Trump’s administration over attempts
to drastically downsize, and possibly eliminate, the U.S. Department of
Education.
His remarks came just two days after the agency abruptly laid off 1,300
employees, or about half its workforce, including an estimated 50
workers in its Chicago regional office, as well as persistent reports
that the president is preparing to issue an executive order to dismantle
the agency entirely, a move many say the president cannot make without
congressional approval.
The remarks also came days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture
terminated a $26.3 million grant to the Illinois State Board of
Education that helped Illinois schools and child care facilities buy
locally grown fresh produce from Illinois farmers for use in meals and
snacks.
In a campaign-style speech before a friendly audience of about 1,200
representatives of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s
largest labor union, Pritzker lashed out at the president and his
supporters, whom he called “bootlickers” and “DOGE-bags,” a reference to
the Trump’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, led by
billionaire Elon Musk.
Pritzker, who is often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate
in 2028, also leveled specific criticism at Trump’s secretary of
education, Linda McMahon, a former president and CEO of World Wrestling
Entertainment, Inc.
In the nearly two months since Trump’s inauguration for a second term,
Pritzker and the state of Illinois have been engaged in a series of
legal and political battles, many stemming from Trump’s early executive
orders to freeze large categories of federal spending or cut off funding
for various programs.
In a related announcement Thursday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame
Raoul said he had joined yet another multistate federal lawsuit against
the Trump administration — one of several he has joined — this time as
part of an effort to block Trump from dismantling the Department of
Education.
That agency has existed in its present form only since 1980, when it was
split off from the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The remainder became what is now the Department of Health and Human
Services.
The agency administers several federal laws that deal with education,
ranging from the Every Student Succeeds Act, which mandates the testing
of students every year in reading, writing and math, to Title IX and
other civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in educational
settings.
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Gov. JB Pritzker speaks to reporters after delivering a scathing
criticism of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs at the U.S.
Department of Education. (Credit: Illinois.gov)
It also distributes large amounts of federal funds to states and local
schools, including Title I funds, which supplement the funding of
schools in the nation’s poorest communities.
In addition to the Department of Education, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture also provides significant federal funding to schools,
primarily through the National School Lunch Program.
It also administers federal programs for higher education, including
student financial aid programs such as Pell grants and guaranteed
student loans.
Although those federal funds are important for schools, they make up a
relatively small percentage of overall spending on public education.
Local property taxes and state funding make up the vast majority of
public school budgets.
According to state figures, in Fiscal Year 2023 in Illinois, the most
recent year for which figures are available, federal funds for schools
totaled $4.7 billion, or just 12% of all spending for public schools.
Local revenues, at $25 billion, accounted for 64% while the remaining
24%, or $9.3 billion, came from state funds.
For the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, the state expects to
receive about $4.5 billion in federal K-12 education funds.
In a statement Tuesday, McMahon said the mass layoffs were aimed at
“ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to
students, parents, and teachers,” giving no indication they were a step
toward eliminating the programs that the Department of Education
administers.
But speaking to reporters after his remarks to the IEA gathering,
Pritzker brushed aside suggestions that the Trump administration only
wants to do away with the agency’s bureaucracy, not the programs or
funds that it administers.
“One of those standards is that every disabled child should be able to
get an education, that every one of the kids who qualify should be able
to go to college. And it looks to me like they’re trying to at least
diminish it by a significant amount if not do away with it altogether,”
he said.
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by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
