After six years as IEA president, Ken Swanson retires Friday, July 15th. In a final video address to IEA members, President Swanson urges his colleagues to continue to advocate for quality education for students and for fairness for education employees. Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)
This was the most challenging legislative sessions for public education in recent memory with education reform, the possibility of vouchers, attacks on pensions and other items all on the table. The Illinois Education Association was quite successful in helping its members and improving the education climate in this state. The reason for that success was [...]
A video tribute to outgoing NEA Directors Kathi Griffin, Al Llorens, Gary Miller and Mike Orr as well as Katie Kreis, NEA Student Director.
It’s easy to cast aside all the news that comes from the Illinois Statehouse. It can often seem far away, or far removed. But educators and education employees have become the star of the legislative show during the past few sessions. The decisions lawmakers make have a direct impact on you and your work. Join [...]
It’s often hard to understand how what happens at the Illinois State Capitol Building can directly affect you in your school. But it does. And, there’s an easy and rewarding way to get involved. Join the Grassroots Political Activist program. Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)
Gov. Quinn on Monday signed into law Senate Bill 7 (SB7), education reform legislation developed during four months of negotiations involving education employee unions, school administrators, legislators, reform advocacy groups and other education stakeholders. In the end, the three major education employee unions, IEA, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union all [...]
Since IEA helped defeat pension-destroying SB512, some news coverage has generated questions as to whether the organization’s position on pensions has changed. As IEA President Ken Swanson makes clear in the video (below), it has not. IEA remains committed to the preservation of the state’s pension systems and will only support pension proposals that are: [...]
IEA Vice president Robert Blade comments on the just completed legislative session that saw IEA members help defeat a pension-destroying bill, but also saw legislators approve a budget in which education spending was significantly reduced.
IEA President Swanson reports from Springfield on the announcement today (May 30) that House Speaker Madigan and Leader Cross were abandoning, for the spring legislative session, their plan to pass legislation that would have cut retirement benefits for public employees in the five state retirement systems, including TRS and SURS. Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), [...]
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.