“Here’s the punchline: We have to tax the rich,” Davis Gates said at an Oct. 29 in Springfield, Illinois. “It is not because we just think that they’re not doing enough, it’s because we do our fair share and then some, and we need a little more help. It’s fair.”

The state’s education funding formula was with an infusion of money designed to ensure districts reach at least 90% of adequate funding levels by 2027. A recent found that while this change improved some school budgets, districts won’t reach full funding until at least 2038, “leaving an entire generation of students without access to an adequately funded education.”

“We need our Illinois lawmakers to deliver — they have already promised us those funds but they have not delivered,” said Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, the statewide union’s executive vice president. “Over one-third of Illinois school districts are funded at 76% or less. The only way we are going to fix this is to have a new revenue structure.”

The Illinois Federation of Teachers — which has 103,000 members and more than 200 chapters including the Chicago Teachers Union — in a statement that the lack of adequate resources has caused districts to struggle with meeting legal requirements for special education, keeping class sizes manageable and recruiting and retaining staff.

While there are no policy proposals for taxing the wealthy on the table in Illinois, the union argues that the state could pursue something like Massachusetts’ to help fund schools. The law requires an additional 4% levy paid by anyone earning more than $1 million annually. Massachusetts accrued almost $3 billion from the tax this past fiscal year.

Davis Gates, who was previously vice president of the statewide union, replaced Dan Montgomery in October after his resignation. School funding has been a main focus for her in Chicago. The district currently receives and has experienced tumultuous budget deficits, including a in state dollars. 

In November, the Chicago Teachers Union to pass Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget, which earmarked $552 million for Chicago Public Schools from the city’s unused tax increment financing revenue.

Davis Gates and other union leaders said in a that Chicago’s budget is “what we need our Governor and Illinois General Assembly to mirror at the state level.”

“Chicago can only do so much while Illinois’ tax system is upside down,” the union said. “We need our state government to fight Trump cuts with ending tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and to protect Illinois with the promised but undelivered resources to our schools, transit and public institutions.”