Sycamore school board backs Illinois education lobbying group

SYCAMORE – A statewide lobbying group that pushes for initiatives aimed at teacher retention and education funding has gained the support of Sycamore School District 427.

Vision 2030, the lobbying group, is the spawn of Vision 2020, a similar lobbying effort that helped professional organizations advocate for grade school educators. The District 427 board put its support behind the lobbying efforts this month. The Vision group in the past has advocated at the state level for increased funding to Illinois schools, targeted ways to recruit more teachers and investment in early childhood education.

District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder said Vision 2020 was successful in implementing teacher improvement policies, among other initiatives.

“They’ve had a huge impact on the state of public education since 2020,” Wilder said. “Because of that initiative, there was a lot of push and a lot of leverage.”

The board voted to support the Vision 2030 lobbying effort in a unanimous voice vote.

Wilder told the school board that the multiple statewide organizations, including the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois Association of School Boards and others, are encouraging school boards throughout the state to publicly support Vision 2030.

Wilder said a unified front helped gain an ear with state legislators under the Vision 2020 initiative.

“Legislators, in specific, when so many school districts were kind of speaking the same language and so many school districts had approved resolutions supporting Vision 2020, it really gave lobbyists in Springfield a lot of power and influence to have meaningful conversations with legislators,” he said.