Wow! This week we weren’t just honoring 5 years of Awake Illinois advocacy — we were in Washington D.C. to stand alongside grassroots leaders who refuse to back to the SPLC hate and we filed 5 federal civil rights complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice. This is our nonprofit mission in action. In honor of our 5th anniversary, we just filed 5 new federal civil rights complaints with the Department of Justice against Illinois schools and the State Board of Education for systemic...

Education Freedom: It's Time to End the Teachers' Union Stranglehold - And the Data Proves It Works By Shannon Adcock for Illinois Review In America today, millions of parents feel trapped. Their children's futures are dictated by zip codes, failing public schools, and a system that prioritizes adult jobs and union interests over student success. Chicago Public Schools exemplify this crisis: staffing has surged 20% since 2019 while enrollment dropped 10%, turning the system into a jobs...

As the founder of Awake Illinois, I've spent years scrutinizing how Illinois school districts prioritize ideology over education, often at the expense of taxpayers and students. The latest fiasco in Naperville Community Unit School District 203 (D203) is a textbook example: facing a projected $12.4 million budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year, the district is now dangling retirement incentives to push out veteran teachers . This move, approved by a 5-1 board vote on February 20, 2026,...