At Home Lobby Days On April 6 to 18, members that want to defend public education and their retirement security are asked to lobby their legislators. Those two weeks are when legislators will be at their home offices and we encourage members to tell their elected officials why the governor’s budget is not a good [...]
Kevin Robinson named IEA Teacher of the Year
March 27, 2009 By
A 27-year-old Collinsville teacher has been named Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Education Association. Kevin Robinson, a fifth grade teacher at Dorris Intermediate School, was presented with the Bob Haisman Teacher of the Year award during a recent meeting of the IEA Regional Assembly in Rosemont, Ill. Robinson is in his third year [...]
Capitol Report
March 20, 2009 By
Capitol Report
March 6, 2009 By
The Capitol Buzz Committee on Deficit Reduction — Now the real work begins. On Tuesday, the newly-created Senate Committee on Deficit Reduction met for the first time. It’s charged with listening to testimony from various interest groups and to help the General Assembly decide how to reduce the $9 billion state deficit. The hearing was [...]
Capitol Report
February 27, 2009 By
Capitol Buzz On Wednesday, representatives from all of the public employee unions (IEA, IFT, AFSCME, Teamsters, SEIU) met with Governor Quinn to discuss pension reform. The groups are strongly opposed to any proposals that would diminish the protections afforded their members. The meeting also focused on the need for a new sustainable, reliable revenue source [...]
Free digital books for your classroom
February 26, 2009 By
Celebrate NEA’s Read Across America in true Seussian style. Dr. Seuss and kidthing have teamed up to offer teachers a collection of four classic Dr. Seuss titles free on kidthing for your classroom throughout the month of March! Visit www.kidthing.com/nea and download digital read-along versions of The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a [...]
State board issues guidance on class sizes
February 26, 2009 By
The Illinois State Board of Education has issued guidance on how to apply the new class size rules (Sections 226.730(b) and (c)) effective at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. The ISBE rules and guidance will be the basis for how school districts determine special education class sizes. The guidance document focuses on 2 [...]
Capitol Report
February 20, 2009 By
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17. This historic legislation seeks to immediately stimulate job creation during these challenging economic times by cutting taxes and investing hundreds of billions of dollars over the next two years in critical sectors [...]
Fatheree wins top NEA teaching award
February 20, 2009 By
A multimedia arts teacher at Effingham High School has received the top teaching award from the National Education Association (NEA). Joe Fatheree received the NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence during a banquet in Washington D.C., on Friday, February 6. The award carries with it a $25,000 cash prize in addition to the $10,000 [...]
IEA President thanks members for stimulus support
February 20, 2009 By
I want to thank everyone who engaged in our call to action regarding the stimulus bill, which is going to bring billions in education funding to Illinois in the next two years. This money will be critically important to our efforts to, at minimum, hold education funding to the budgeted amount this year and avoid [...]
Illinois Education Association is an association of more than 130,000 members composed of Illinois elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.