Let's give thanks anyway!

My first impression, this Thanksgiving, is to forget the thanks and pass the Prozac. From invasive body scanners to high unemployment, things just feel bad. And the highly negative, just completed election cycle only amplifies these feelings.

What better time to regroup, reframe, refresh, and find those things that we can be thankful for. So within the sphere of this blog to Save Our Schools, here are seven things for which we are thankful this year.

We are thankful for:

• Averting a catastrophe at the state level by defeating those politicians who were ready to wage war against public schools, fair funding, and the collective bargaining rights of educators.
• IEA staff and members who rallied together like never before, making a major impact on the outcome of the election.
• Receiving federal funds this year that helped us avert the worst case scenario of massive educator layoffs for one more year.
• Ralph Martire and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, whose objective and honest analysis of state funding has become the gold standard for state economic data and analysis in Illinois.
• The Responsible Budget Coalition, which, for the first time, has brought together unions, school boards, school administrators AND health and human service providers into a large and powerful coalition promoting a fair funding structure for taxation and expenditures in Illinois.
• More than 15,000 people rallying together in Springfield, thanks to the efforts of the RBC, to demand a tax increase to fix the state’s budget and properly fund education, health and human services in the coming years.
• And our 130,000 IEA members who strive every day to bring the best education possible to students under the adverse conditions of funding shortfalls and limited resources.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!