In our home state, Illinois educational failures have plagued us for years, severely threatening our economic and global future.

That’s why civic and business leaders from all sides of the political spectrum—with funding from the Joyce Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other national and local philanthropies— recently came together to develop a strategy to improve public education in Illinois.

Advance Illinois is an independent, objective voice to promote a public education system in Illinois that prepares all students to be ready for work, college, and democratic citizenship.

“When they leave school, American students are no longer competing just with each other for jobs—they are competing with graduates from around the world,” notes board member Miguel del Valle, City Clerk of Chicago and former chair of Illinois Senate Education Committee. “If we do not keep up, our children face an uncertain future.”

The group’s board of directors includes prominent government leaders such as former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former Democratic U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, as well as those working on the front lines in Illinois communities like Patricia Watkins, executive director of  TARGET Area Community Development Corporation, Sylvia Puente of the University of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies, and Joseph Fatheree, Illinois Teacher of the Year 2006-2007, Effingham High School.

Advance Illinois’ ambitious agenda includes:

• Releasing objective research and data about education trends in Illinois.
• Holding “listening sessions” around the state to examine the real important issues affecting education and the workforce in Illinois.
• Developing a bold policy agenda for education reform.
• Mobilizing citizen support for change in Illinois’ education system.

As part of its launch, Advance Illinois released a report The State We’re In: Advancing Public Education in Illinois showing Illinois education lags the rest of the country at a time when the U.S. is itself dropping behind much of the world. Later this spring, Advance Illinois will release its bold, comprehensive blueprint for reform.

Read recent media coverage about the launch of Advance Illinois.

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Find out more about the educational programs funded by the Joyce Foundation.