From the Desk— Remembering Governor Edgar, A Powerful Illinois Leader

In addition to serving Illinois as a principled, compassionate elected official, Gov. Jim Edgar served as Founding Co-Chair and champion of Advance Illinois and the bipartisan work it represents to strengthen educational opportunities and outcomes for Illinois students. 

Gov. Jim Edgar, Advance Illinois Founding Co-Chair.

It is with heavy hearts that we write to honor the passing of former Governor Jim Edgar. At a time when political strife is on the rise, Illinois has lost a public servant who believed in public service and in using elective office to bring people together to improve the lives of all families. It is not surprising that Gov. Edgar remains one of the most beloved former governors in the state, or that he leaves a tangible, bipartisan legacy. 

While in office, Gov. Edgar tackled thorny issues ranging from ballooning pension debt, and state deficits, to inequitable school funding, and did so while retaining broad-based support. After stepping down as Governor, Jim Edgar resisted calls to run for other offices, choosing instead to speak candidly about political issues and races, and to focus on mentoring the next generation. 

In that vein, Gov. Edgar lent his considerable reputation and energy to founding two bipartisan organizations. First, he joined a group of civic leaders who came together to investigate whether and how Illinois could make more significant progress ensuring that every Illinois student had the education they needed to thrive and succeed. The group concluded that Illinois would benefit from an organization that worked on systemic issues and did so across traditional geographic, political, and other divides. Gov. Jim Edgar believed enough in the mission that he agreed to become founding co-chair of Advance Illinois. Partnering with Bill Daley, a well-known Chicago Democrat, Gov. Edgar lent his voice to establishing Advance Illinois as a credible, bipartisan organization committed to using data and research to identify high-impact strategies, and to working across the diversity of Illinois to engage and involve stakeholders.  

Several years later, in a similar vein, Gov. Edgar founded the Edgar Fellows Program at the University of Illinois. The program has a simple, but important, goal: to bring the next generation of state leaders together to learn from and with each other about the issues the state faces. Explicitly, the goal was to ensure that every cohort of Edgar Fellows represented the political, geographic, gender, racial, and civic diversity of the state – with a special emphasis on leaders in or likely to pursue elected office. From there, the objective was for Fellows to get to know each other – well enough to work across divides on hard issues. The program boasts over 500 graduates and continues today. 

Advance Illinois 15th Anniversary honorees former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, former Governor Jim Edgar, and former Illinois State Senator Miguel Del Valle with Advance Illinois President Robin Steans. (November 1, 2023)

As anyone who had the pleasure of working with him will attest, in addition to being a laudable public figure, Jim Edgar was just a wonderful human being. He was unfailingly candid, perceptive, engaging, and warm. At one of his final public appearances, he used his time to lament the importance – and absence – of compassion as a driving force in government. And that basic humanity was just as present up close. It will forever be a personal and professional highlight to have had the opportunity to work closely with Gov. Edgar in launching Advance Illinois. He spent untold hours with me discussing issues of the day, strategizing, or just reflecting on the world – hours filled with real interest in advancing good policy, a keen and self-deprecating sense of humor, and a genuine desire to support others to learn and grow. Jim Edgar cared deeply about Illinois and dedicated himself to finding ways to support its ongoing growth and health – through public service, through education, and through supporting the next generation of leaders.   

I know we are not alone in mourning the loss of Governor Edgar. We join an extensive cross-section of the state in sending our condolences to his family and celebrating his legacy. We are grateful for who Gov. Edgar was, and, in turn, what he meant to our organization. Like others, we are committed to carrying on his legacy; to reach across divides to make great things happen for every child and student in our state. 

From the Desk—Reflecting on Progress in 2024

What a year this has been! While there have been challenges, including a tight budget, we are grateful that 2024 also brought real progress. As we look ahead to 2025, knowing we face another tough budget year and plenty of changes and challenges, the progress made in 2024 reminds us that positive impact is not only possible, but essential. There is, of course, more work to do, but it is important to pause and appreciate where we have taken important steps, seen meaningful growth, and tackled deep-seated and difficult issues. Then, fortified by the knowledge that we can accomplish hard things when we put our minds to it, we can ready ourselves for the next push. 

In Early Childhood, A New Agency and a New Leader! 

2024 is the year that Illinois created the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), a move that allows the state for the first time to bring together programs that have been managed across three agencies – a move that in turn creates the opportunity to ensure that programs and policies are fairer, more effective, and easier to navigate for both families and providers. Of course, it requires serious focus and visionary leadership to take full advantage of this opportunity. So it is fortunate indeed that the Governor has appointed Dr. Teresa Ramos as the founding Secretary of IDEC. As First Assistant Deputy Governor for Education, Dr. Ramos has been integrally involved in IDEC’s development. A longstanding education advocate (including as Outreach Director for Advance Illinois!), she is committed to working closely with parents, community leaders, providers, and those with technical expertise as the emerging agency shapes key new strategies to strengthen Illinois’ system of early childhood education and care.  

We look forward to partnering with Dr. Ramos and IDEC in 2025 and beyond, and will continue to prioritize core recommendations from the Governor’s Early Childhood Funding Commission. These include stable and coordinated funding mechanisms to support high-quality programs, improved system-wide data and analytic capacity to inform programs and policy, and targeted work to retain, recruit and fairly compensate a qualified and diverse ECEC workforce. Importantly, the state has already made meaningful headway on these critical goals. You can read more about the good work already underway in our recent ECEC publication.  

K12: Signs of Progress, Areas for Improvement 

Along with the rest of the country (and world), Illinois students continue to recover from the impacts of COVID 19 and significant educational and community disruptions.  So it was encouraging that the 2024 Illinois School Report Card included news that Illinois students demonstrated academic proficiency that exceeded pre-pandemic levels in English Language Arts, that kindergarten readiness in the state is steadily increasing, that high school graduation rates continue to improve (especially among Black students), and that college-enrollment is ticking back up.  That is all worth cheering, and suggests that dedicated, hard work at the local level is making a difference, as is ongoing investment in the state’s equitable school funding formula. At the same time, other data reminds us of the work ahead. The state continues to wrestle with significant equity gaps, math proficiency has not yet rebounded, nor has college readiness, as reflected in SAT scores. As importantly, chronic absenteeism rates – powerful predictors of longer-term persistence and achievement - remain troublingly high, particularly for targeted student groups.  

At long last...A Serious Blueprint for Adequate, Equitable, and Sustainable Funding for Illinois’ Public Universities 

This year, after more than 2 years of analysis, research and discussion, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding concluded its work with strong, actionable recommendations for a better way to fund the state’s public universities. As the Senate and House convened hearings on the Commission’s findings, there was a growing and clear consensus that the state’s current funding approach cannot continue; that it is time to move away from a system that does not consider student or institutional need, that is not connected to any state priorities, and is driven largely by politics. Today, SB3965 and HB5907, which operationalize the Commission’s recommendations, have been filed, and higher education leaders and legislators are actively negotiating a final package. We fully expect the General Assembly to take up this critical issue in the coming session, but it is worth pausing to celebrate that for first time, Illinois has a clear roadmap for how to better support students and universities, and to ensure that sufficient funding follows student need. The state now has a ground-breaking model that is (1) anchored in adequacy and equity, (2) with a distribution methodology that acknowledges the diverse needs of students and the specific missions of universities, and (3) prioritizes new dollars for institutions with the least resources while ensuring all institutions benefit.  

Also on the higher education front, we can and should celebrate that the state continues to grow the Monetary Award Program (MAP), appropriating at a level that allows all applicants to receive awards, even as it has enabled the state to increase average award amounts.  That said, MAP still covers just 55% of average tuition and fees at a four-year public university, compared to 100% coverage in the early 2000s, and Illinois remains one of the least affordable states in the nation to attend college. So the work continues. (And it is worth noting that fixing the state’s public university funding will also help keep tuition rates down.) 

Supporting and Strengthening Our Educator Pipeline 

Illinois has been building a comprehensive and evidence-based set of strategies to strengthen and grow the state’s educator pipeline. These efforts include a new media campaign to attract the next generation of teachers, investment in new teacher mentoring and coaching, and ongoing work to remove financial barriers for student teachers, bilingual teachers, special education teachers, and aspiring teachers of color. The result? Illinois continues to see increased enrollment in teacher preparation programs and a more diverse set of candidates. Federal stimulus dollars have bolstered these efforts, but in 2024 the state wisely chose to use state dollars to continue key programs, such as the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) and teacher affinity groups. We hope the state will continue to invest in these and other critical pipeline programs, particularly as demand for effective and diverse educators increases. 

In addition to creating and growing relevant programs, the state took important steps this year to reflect on and revisit key elements of our teacher licensure and evaluation systems. We commend ISBE and the General Assembly for evaluating and seeking to continuously improve these critical systems, which are in place to ensure our educators are effective and well-supported. 

Sadly, 2024 also brought some challenges. This year, after several years of historic increases in funding to the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship, a 32-year program and one of numerous key investments the state has been making to strengthen and diversify its teaching pool, MTI has come under legal attack. 

The lawsuit against MTI alleges discrimination on the basis of race, as the scholarship is limited to teacher candidates of color. The challenge to this longstanding and effective program is misguided, missing the critical point that this scholarship supplements many other programs, and, more importantly, is targeted to address research-based student need. Put simply, Illinois continues to work to undo systemic injustice and to ensure that students of color are given the tools they need to achieve and succeed at the same rate as their peers. Decades of research tells us that students of color do better across a range of outcomes when they have a teacher of color at some point during their schooling. To address this, Illinois launched MTI, making scholarships available to aspiring teachers of color in exchange for those teachers teaching in schools with 30% or more students of color.  Discontinuing a strategy grounded in evidence to improve student outcomes is in opposition to our state and our children’s best interests. Accordingly, we expect strong support for HR0942 and SR1303 affirming the state’s compelling interest in maintaining this critical program. 

In Conclusion... 

Illinois seeks to become the greatest state in the nation to raise a child, and we are working to implement strong, forward-looking, student-centered policies and vision. Consider the transformative change in K-12 education spurred by Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) reform, this year’s massive governance shift in early childhood, and proposals on the table to bring adequacy and equity to the forefront in Higher Education in ways no other state has attempted. We have proven over and over again that when we come together to think boldly, and when we keep students and children at the center, we can and do accomplish important things. On to 2025!