Put a dollar into public education and research shows you get as much as twelve back, the highest return of any public program. You would not know it from watching the current debate in Springfield.
I teach at Niles North High School in Skokie, Illinois, in one of the better-funded school districts in Illinois.
I know what better funding makes possible. I see it every day in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the students who have access to counselors, extracurricular activities, and programs that actually prepare them to pursue their dreams.
I also know colleagues across this state who teach in districts where budgets are so tight that basic needs go unmet year after year, where gyms and libraries are locked because the coach and the librarian were laid off, where bus routes, special education support, and nutritious meals are mandated but not provided
The difference between those two experiences is not about effort or dedication. It is about investment.
Our students should be Illinois’ real megaproject.
The returns are proven, the need could not be more urgent, and unlike a tax break for the McCaskey’s football stadium, the investment pays dividends for generations.
I get to see what that investment does and what it could do for the rest of the state. Well-funded schools produce graduates who are ready to work, pay taxes, build families, and start businesses. That is the return on investment politicians rarely talk about, but it’s one that shows up in the long-term fiscal health of a state.
That is what makes the megaprojects bill so troubling. Instead of rectifying the debt owed to Illinois’ students and investing in them, the Illinois House passed a 377-page bill that would let corporations negotiate their property tax payments for decades instead of having them pay what they owe. It’s being talked about as a way to keep an NFL team valued at more than $6 billion from moving to Indiana, but it is about so much more
If you repaint your front door or add a bathroom to your home in Illinois, your assessment goes up and so does your tax bill. But under this bill, it would not apply to the giant corporations building $100 million dollar projects in your backyard.
The owners of the Bears are the face for why the bill exists, but they are far from the only ones who would benefit. Any development topping $100 million in investment qualifies, which means factories, warehouses, rail yards and corporate campuses across Illinois could lock in a generation worth of tax breaks.
The argument for this bill is that Illinois needs to compete. I understand that. Indiana made a generous offer and no one wants to see Illinois lose a major franchise. But competing by giving away the tax base that funds our schools is not economic development. It is a trade where the people who can least afford it pick up the tab. When mega developers become exempt from taxes, the schools they pay for don’t go away. The responsibility just gets transferred to homeowners who end up making up the difference through higher property tax bills.
Gov. Pritzker’s own office analyzed the property tax relief provision lawmakers added to win votes and called it "negligible." On a hypothetical $20 million development payment, a typical Illinois homeowner would see $1.29 in relief. That is not relief to a family struggling to put food on the table. Meanwhile the corporations cutting those deals walk away paying a fraction of what they owe, with decades of tax “relief” locked in.
Illinois is already behind on its obligations to students by more than $6 billion. The state passed a law in 2017 promising every school would reach 90% of its adequacy funding target by 2027. At the current pace we will not get there until 2034, seven years after the deadline. Passing a bill that drains property tax revenue away from school districts does not help us get there faster.
Illinois can attract businesses and fund world-class schools at the same time. But we cannot do all of that if we keep cutting school funding every time a better-connected interest comes along asking for a deal.
The McCaskey family enterprise has every right to negotiate the best stadium arrangement they can find. But the rest of Illinois should not be asked to subsidize that negotiation by rewriting our tax code to hand over generations of property tax revenue that would otherwise go to the kids sitting in our classrooms right now.
Our students are not a line item to be trimmed when the ultra-rich come looking for a handout. Their education should be our mega project. There is no better investment anyone could make. Springfield should start treating them that way.
Pankaj Sharma is Secretary-Treasurer of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and President of the North Suburban Teachers Union IFT AFT Local 1274. He teaches history and government at Niles North High School in Skokie.
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May 16, 2026 at 07:58AM
Illinois Delivered 