"We Dedicate Our Lives To Serving Our Schools": The Skokie Teacher Fighting For Fair Funding

SKOKIE, IL — Alongside hundreds of Illinois teachers from schools across the state, a Skokie history and government teacher took to the capitol to advocate for increased funding for public schools and higher education.

Pankaj Sharma, who has taught at Niles North High School for 24 years, was recently elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, a union that fights for economic and social justice in public schools. The IFT went to Springfield last week to voice their opposition to President Donald Trump's funding cuts for schools and public services.

To Sharma, these cuts increase the challenges educators face, including retirement concerns and lack of funding for educational resources. With federal grants being cut as well as public services, Sharma said it's really important for the state to step up to make Illinois the best place to learn for students.

"We dedicate our lives to helping young people and serving our communities and schools, so we see ourselves as partners for parents, students and community leaders who want to make Illinois the best place possible to live. I want to make sure schools are fully funded, that higher education is affordable for young people, and that public employees have a decent retirement," Sharma said.

In his time teaching at Skokie, Sharma said his students have expressed their feelings to him about the challenges they face that serve as barriers to their learning. Recently, his students have started asking questions about democratic systems, especially as fear grows about federal immigration authorities moving into local communities around them.

Several of Sharma's students' family members have been detained or deported in the recent weeks, and they've shown up to class in tears. Sharma says this emotional turmoil he sees in his students underscores the need for better financial support for school services like psychologists.

"Every day our students ask me, ‘What about checks and balances? What about separation of powers? Who's gonna stand up?’ Congress isn't standing up. The courts aren't standing up. It's on us to stand up," Sharma said.

Among the struggles that impact students is, of course, the rising cost of education. Students have expressed their frustration about how expensive it is to go to schools in Illinois to Sharma, and said cost contributed to their choice to go to college in other Midwest states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana or Ohio.

While costs to go to school go up, salaries for teachers and their pension benefits don't follow, putting stress and strain on the people students need the most. Newer educators tend not to stick around when they learn they'll have to work past traditional retirement age because their pension won't be able to support them, Sharma said.

"The Department of Education instead of supporting public schools is attacking them. They're cutting funding. They're taking away academic freedom. They're targeting educators. We can't let
that stand," Sharma said. "I teach in suburbs where we are losing teachers, great educators, public employees, who say, I can't keep doing this job till I'm 70. I deserve to retire with a decent pension…We're not going to take this anymore. We need the revenue.”