Illinois was awarded $768 million in a multi-state settlement with Meta over child social media addiction. The Illinois Federation of Teachers, which is made up of over 200 local unions, wants that money sent to public schools. WNIJ’s Peter Medlin spoke to the IFT's chief of staff Kurt Hilgendorf about the proposal…
WNIJ's Peter Medlin (PM): With the settlement, the money is supposed to be used for youth mental health and online training programs, things directly to alleviate the social media harms that are alleged in the lawsuit. IFT's press release talks about how the money should be used to address these broad, ongoing school funding gaps. Can you talk about that?
IFT's Kurt Hilgendorf (KH): Yeah. I mean, we live in a state that collectively underfunds schools by billions of dollars, and the consequence of that is that students lose out on having social workers or counselors, having class sizes that are too big, losing their sports programs or school clubs. The consequence is students don't get the well-rounded education they need and deserve, and that happens whether it's in Rockford, Elgin, or Champaign. Hundreds of school districts are underfunded, and in fact, 700 school districts are worse-funded this year than they were last year, in percentage terms.
(PM): Again, this is a $768 million portion of the settlement Illinois is receiving, and the release from IFT says that "can fill the gap of every school district and higher education institution in the state." I don't think you literally mean it could get everyone up to the level of funding the state says is necessary. The Illinois State Board of Education said earlier this year that would take $3 billion, and that's just for K-12 schools, not including the higher-ed institutions you mentioned.
(KH): We don't think this fixes [the state's] Evidence-Based Funding permanently. We don't think this fixes higher ed permanently. But having this amount of infusion makes a real dent and it creates the pathway to making sure Springfield can fund schools, and that's pre-K to PhD.
That means we can actually start addressing this problem that we were supposed to be fully funded by this fiscal year, 2027. At the current rate of funding ,for pre-K-12, we won't be funded for 14 years. So, a student who starts in kindergarten this year will never be (fully) funded through their entire time. We think any money that's available to help fix that problem and ensure kids have the supports they need in schools is a worthy objective.
(PM): Even people who agree Illinois schools are mostly underfunded, especially all those districts you point to, and think that needs to be addressed, could make the argument that this is specific money that's supposed to be for remediation or restitution from these specific things around social media harm — and that this is one-time funding that doesn't necessarily need to be used for general education funding.
(KH): The best place to address mental health concerns in a broad way is in public schools. There are nearly 2 million students in Illinois, pre-K to 12, which means that you get to have a huge impact. The second thing I would argue is: when we talk about media literacy, understanding the parts of social media that students need to understand, doing that with trained educators in schools across Illinois is a great site to do that.
The last thing I would just offer is we've been clear this is a way to kickstart additional funding to schools across Illinois. We also know there were more than $3 billion in revenue ideas the legislature and governor didn't take up at the end of session at the end of May. Those ideas are still available and could be used to try to address the shortfall in Evidence-Based Funding we're seeing across Illinois. We think if the Meta conversation becomes the starting point, and we actually raise the revenue we need from those who are most able to pay, this becomes a way to actually fix the problem so we're not having this same conversation in 10 years.
