CASH, CORRUPTION, AND THE DEATH OF TRUST

September 26, 2025•9 min read

Bought and Paid For: How Illinois’ Teachers Unions Betrayed Children and Families

Union cash buys lawmakers, Pritzker bends the knee, and families fight back as the Teacher Freedom Alliance leads a national rebellion

By Staff Writer – September 26, 2025

Editor’s Note:
This investigation exposes how Illinois’ classrooms have been hijacked by political money and union influence. Drawing on public records, parent testimonies, and national education data, it reveals a system where lawmakers are bought, parents are silenced, and children are left behind. What is happening in Illinois is not isolated — it is a warning for the nation.

On the outskirts of Peoria, a mother of three stacks workbooks on her kitchen table, explaining why she pulled her children out of the local public school. Her oldest daughter, once bright and eager, fell a full grade behind in reading. Her middle son came home complaining of chaos in the classroom and teachers who never had time to help. When she asked the district for answers, she was brushed off. “They told me to stop worrying, but I knew my kids were slipping through the cracks,” she recalled. What she discovered later was worse: lawmakers had quietly voted to weaken accountability standards — not because it helped kids, but because the teachers’ union demanded it.

Behind stories like hers lies a staggering truth: Illinois’ classrooms have become pawns in a brutal game of money and power. The Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) has spent more than $11 million buying influence in Springfield. More than three out of four lawmakers now take their money. And once bought, they stay bought.

“In Springfield, the unions write the checks, and the lawmakers write the laws.”

A History of Betrayal

This betrayal is not new. For decades, Illinois’ unions have held education hostage — staging crippling strikes, pouring millions into elections, and protecting their political machine at all costs. Each round of negotiations claimed to be “for the kids,” yet Illinois students consistently ranked near the bottom in national performance.

Today, less than one in three Illinois students reads at grade level, while unions celebrate political victories and richer contracts. In 2024, while the NEA poured nearly half a billion dollars into politics, thousands of Illinois children failed basic math assessments. The imbalance is glaring: money flows up, accountability flows out, and students fall further behind.

The Machinery of Corruption

Walk the halls of the Illinois Capitol and you can see the union’s grip. Whispered meetings behind closed doors. Campaign dollars changing hands like poker chips. Legislators eager to please the very special interests they are supposed to regulate.

The numbers alone tell the story:

$6.7 million to state representatives.
$4.7 million to state senators.
117 of 118 Democrats on the take.
99% of union contributions flowing to Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker.

Among the biggest beneficiaries is Pritzker himself, whose campaign war chest was fortified with union dollars. In return, he has been a loyal soldier for their agenda, shielding them from reform and advancing policies they demand.

“Illinois Democrats sold out classrooms to keep their campaign coffers full.”

An Agenda Against Families

In a Chicago suburb, a father of two remembers the day his seventh grader brought home a survey asking deeply personal questions about family life and gender identity — without his permission. “I felt blindsided. I should have been asked. I was treated like I had no say,” he said.

That fight — blocking parental notification — was just one piece of the union’s radical agenda.

Here’s what the unions demanded in 2025:

Weakened accountability by removing student growth as a factor in evaluating teachers.
Delayed law enforcement access to schools, even in non-immigration matters.
Restricted districts during emergencies, making it harder to contract needed services.
Opposed transparency in teacher misconduct investigations, even in cases of sexual abuse.
Opposed parental consent for intrusive surveys on personal information.
Opposed dyslexia screenings and reading deficiency notices for young children.
Fought against parental notification on student gender transitions, cutting parents out of life-changing decisions about their children.
Supported biological males in girls’ sports and locker rooms, disregarding safety, fairness, and common sense.
Pushed lawmakers to make homeschooling harder, demanding new restrictions to strip parents of control over their children’s education.

“The union’s agenda doesn’t defend education — it dismantles it.”

The Attack on Homeschooling

Downstate, a grandmother raising her grandson said she pleaded with school officials to screen him for dyslexia after he struggled to read simple sentences. “They said their hands were tied because the bill to require screenings never passed,” she said, shaking her head. “Later I learned the teachers’ union lobbied against it. Who lobbies against a child learning to read?”

When she finally pulled him out to homeschool, she thought she had found peace. But then came word of new union-backed proposals in Springfield: registration requirements, lesson plan mandates, even state inspections for homeschool families. “They act like I’m a criminal for teaching my grandson at home,” she said.

These bills stalled in the spring session, but the unions have signaled they will try again this fall. For parents across Illinois, the message is clear: freedom to educate your children at home is a threat to union power — and the unions are determined to crush it.

A Teacher Speaks Out

It’s not just parents. Teachers themselves are breaking ranks. One Chicago high school teacher, who recently joined the Teacher Freedom Alliance, said she felt betrayed by her own union. “I realized I was paying $1,200 a year not to help my students, but to elect politicians who don’t care about education. It was all politics, all the time,” she said.

Her story reflects a growing movement among educators who feel silenced by union leadership that prioritizes ideology over classrooms.

Pritzker: The Unions’ Governor

At the center of this web is Gov. JB Pritzker. Fed by union donations, he has repaid them with loyalty, shielding their agenda at every turn. Whether it’s lowering standards, blocking parental rights, restricting homeschooling, or supporting social policies that divide communities, Pritzker stands with the unions, not the families.

The message is clear: in Illinois, money matters more than children.

The Truth the Unions Fear

For decades, unions told teachers they had no choice. Refuse to pay dues, and you could lose your job. That ended with two Supreme Court cases:

Harris v. Quinn (2014): freed “partial-public employees” from forced dues.
Janus v. AFSCME (2018): affirmed that no public employee can be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

In Janus, the Court declared: “No person should be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that they do not wish to support.” Yet Illinois lawmakers, fueled by union dollars, continue to find ways to force families and teachers to surrender their freedoms.

Meanwhile, the NEA spent over 50% of its $432 million budget on politics in 2024, with 97% of funds going to Democrats. Just 9% of their budget represented teachers.

Union leaders have been candid:

“The rush to reopen schools is about politics, not kids — it’s the anti-union crowd trying to break us.” — Kim Anderson, NEA Executive Director

“If you get in the way of our progress toward a more just nation, we will get in the way of your election.” — Randi Weingarten, AFT President

These are not educational goals. They are threats.

A New Rebellion: The Teacher Freedom Alliance

Back at her kitchen table in Peoria, the mother who pulled her children from public school scrolls through her phone. On the screen is a new organization she’s joined: the Teacher Freedom Alliance. It offers teachers — and indirectly families like hers — an alternative to the monopoly unions.

Backed by the Freedom Foundation, the Alliance provides dues-free membership, $2 million in liability coverage, alternative curricula, and professional development hours — without the politics. Already more than 2,500 teachers have joined.

And now, the fight has a new general. On September 25, 2025, the Alliance announced that Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters will serve as its incoming CEO.

“For decades, union bosses have poisoned our schools with politics and propaganda while abandoning parents, students, and good teachers. That ends today,” Walters declared. “We’re going to expose them, fight them, and take back our classrooms. This is a battle for the future of our kids, and we will not lose.”

Walters officially takes the helm October 1. His arrival signals a national push to break the union monopoly and return classrooms to teachers and families.

“We’re honored to have Ryan Walters as the next CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance,” said Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation. “There’s no path to restoring education that doesn’t involve breaking the grip of unions.”

The National Stakes

Illinois is not just another battleground. It is the unions’ test lab. What they achieve here — silencing parents, crushing homeschooling, and embedding politics in the classroom — becomes the model exported to other states like California, New York, and eventually Washington, D.C.

That is why the Teacher Freedom Alliance sees Illinois as ground zero. If parents and teachers win here, they can win anywhere.

The Road Ahead

Illinois stands at a crossroads. Lawmakers, bound by union dollars, continue to trade away the future of children for political gain. But across the state, from city neighborhoods to small towns, families and educators are pushing back.

This fall, the battle will intensify. Unions are preparing another assault on homeschooling, hoping to tighten their grip on families who dare to step outside their system. Parents know what’s at stake: the right to guide their children’s education without fear or interference. Teachers know it too, as more of them break free from unions that value politics over classrooms.

And so the real test begins — not in the marble halls of Springfield, but around kitchen tables where parents plan lessons, in school board meetings where voices rise, and in classrooms where teachers quietly choose freedom over control.

The union machine is powerful. But history shows even the most entrenched systems can fall when ordinary people refuse to surrender. Illinois families are refusing. Their courage is becoming a movement. And that movement may yet reclaim the classrooms — not for politics, not for power, but for the children who deserve nothing less.

For parents and teachers ready to learn more, visit: https://www.teacherfreedomalliance.com/