PEER Illinois

What does it take for lawyers and organizers to build strong, lasting partnerships?

Join "Building the Partnership: How Lawyers and Organizers Can Build Collaborative, Effective, and Durable Partnerships" at the Power of Connection Civil Rights Workshop. We’ll explore coalition structure, decision-making & communication.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-of-connection-a-civil-rights-workshop-tickets-1982303303543?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

‼️🗣️Today, Illinois lawmakers passed a state budget that once again includes only the minimum increase of $350 million to the Evidence-Based Funding Formula (EBF).

After months of advocacy spearheaded by the Illinois Revenue Alliance (ILRA), of which PEER Illinois is a member, lawmakers also passed a digital ads tax that should generate more than $1 billion in future years.

While it is heartening to see additional investments made in our public education system and progressive revenue solutions advanced, Illinois is still far from meeting the needs of working families across the state, including the long journey of transforming our public schools by fully funding EBF.

Read the link in our bio.

‼️🗣️Take Action / Call your legislators and let them know we need to tax the ultra-rich to ensure our schools have the funds they need!

We’ve reached the end of the legislative session, and budget negotiations are happening NOW! As state leaders have proposed the minimum amounts for our evidence-based funding formula (EBF), we know that’s not enough for our students to get the resources they need.

Children all across Illinois deserve a school where they can learn, thrive, and grow. We are asking our lawmakers to fully fund our school communities through progressive revenue that frees up more funds, to fund their dreams.

⏰Take a couple minutes to email your legislator TODAY, and let them know our students’ futures are on the line. The clock is ticking, Illinois must take action now!

Link in our bio!

Legislators, the clock is ticking!!!⏰

Throughout the state, continued divestment has detrimental impacts on our students. Illinois lawmakers have a choice to invest in public schools and preserve these necessary resources by fully funding the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula and passing progressive revenue measures to enable a strong social service network so that our communities are not always the first to feel the impacts of funding cuts.

THIS WEEK: We’re asking legislators to support these bills from the Illinois Revenue Alliance as they make their final budget negotiations. These progressive revenue solutions would generate $4 billion dollars annually!

Digital Advertising tax - SB3353 (Peters) | HB4894 (N. Hernandez)
Corporate tax reporting - SB3486 (Martwick) | HB5318 (West)
Billionaire wealth tax - SB3376 (Villa) | HB5215 (Mah)
Closing corporate tax loopholes - SB3796 (Collins) | HB5125 (LaPointe)

🗣️ FUND SCHOOLS, FUND DREAMS‼️

We’re calling all youth to submit a drawing that helps tell legislators we need to tax wealthy corporations and the ultra-rich – it’s time for the wealthiest Illinoisans to pay what they owe to our communities. You can submit a drawing that feels authentic to you. This could look like:

🎨A drawing of what your school could look like with more funding
🎨A poster with a catchy or fun message about taxing the ultra-wealthy and large corporations to fund schools
🎨A drawing of a thriving community
🎨Whatever else comes to mind, as long as it’s on-topic :)

We’ll hand these drawings directly to lawmakers so they can see why we should tax the ultra-rich: so we can fund our future.

Submit your drawing to [email protected] by Tuesday May 26, 2026 to ensure your art is hand-delivered to legislators when we head to Springfield next Wednesday on May 27!

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⚠️LEGAL INFO: All submissions are subject to be used for legislative visits, social media and other promotion purposes. Materials may be used for the purposes of promoting the activities of PEER Illinois, including on the Internet, for an unlimited number of times for an unlimited period of time.

All participants will be able to choose to share their name, age and school district if they are willing. All submissions can remain anonymous.

“Just now, we’re trying to buy textbooks that haven’t been replaced in a decade. Keeping things current and up to date is pretty important in the world these kids live in, and we haven’t had the funding to do it. Our students have been sitting with outdated material as the world moves on.”

Illinois lawmakers question progress under Evidence-Based Funding for public education Illinois lawmakers debate school funding progress as many districts remain below adequacy targets.