Illinois Should Respond to Chicago Teachers Union Strike
By Expanding School Choice
On Friday, September 13 at 10 a.m., Bruno Behrend, senior fellow for education issues at The Heartland Institute, will address a press conference alongside State Rep. Tom Morrison about the need for Illinois to lift the cap on charter schools and provide opportunity scholarships to students in Illinois. The press conference will take place at the James R. Thompson Center in the Blue Room on the 15th Floor.
In response to the Chicago Teachers Union strike, which has put hundreds of thousands of Chicago students on the street rather than in the classroom, Behrend will explain why it is time to give parents and students in Illinois more choice in their education.
Behrend said, “Charters are open and serving students while district schools are mired in strikes and bureaucracy. This alone is reason to rapidly expand charter schools and other choices, such as vouchers, through mechanisms like the Parent Trigger.”
John Nothdurft, director of government relations at The Heartland Institute, said, “The Heartland Institute applauds Sen. Kyle McCarter, Sen. Ron Sandack, Rep. Tom Morrison, and Rep. Joe Sosnowski for supporting the expansion of school choice in Illinois.
“Now more than ever,” Nothdurft continued, “parents and students would benefit from Illinois lifting its arbitrary charter school cap and creating an expansive opportunity scholarship program. For 28 years The Heartland Institute has been working with elected officials nationwide to transform the nation’s education system by giving parents more choice in education and allowing education dollars to follow the child.”
The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
For more information, or to book Behrend on your program or schedule an interview, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/731-9364.
John Nothdurft joined the staff of The Heartland Institute in May 2008 and left in January of 2019.
