By: Diane Benjamin
Before you see the analysis, see this link: https://ieanea.org/2026/02/23/illinoisans-strongly-support-public-education-are-against-ice-near-schools-and-federal-funding-cuts/
The questions were asked in a way to elicit the desired results. 69% believe funding for public schools should increase? Do the people in Carlock feel like that? Does anyone in the Unit 5 district think they need more money after passing the 1% Sales Tax increase and seeing their property tax bills? I guarantee it’s nowhere near 69% – especially when they see where their taxes are being spent. Keep reading.
Two Unit 5 teachers at the same school under investigation: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-02-24/normal-police-investigating-second-chiddix-teacher-after-alleged-inappropriate-conduct-with-a-student
Remember Jon White? He left Unit 5 after child abuse allegations for Champaign where he abused more kids. Do administrators know they can be charged for failure to report: https://www.news-gazette.com/news/3-former-educators-charged-in-jon-white-case-aftermath/article_ae4b47a4-f84f-5a3a-a1a4-e8459edc9428.html
Below are the Unit 5 salaries for fiscal year 2024-2025. Total compensation shown on the Unit 5 report doesn’t fit on the page so I took their data, deleted sick days and bonuses (which were all zero) , and squished the columns for the report below. I also sorted them by position instead of listing them alphabetically.
Of course the salaries are higher now, but this is the latest information available. 1136 people are listed.
The first 152 are various administrators, superintendents, guidance counselors, psychologists, and nurses. Total salaries: $16,418,987.91.
3 Athletic Directors are listed – total $404,6014.14. What are these 3 doing to protect your kids from predators? What is the district doing other than burying information?
17 Teachers are listed as English as a Second Language – total salaries $1,341,949.51. That amount won’t be included in the official amounts Illinois spend on “immigrants”. 2 other teachers are listed as bilingual kindergarten – add $146,050.25 to the previous total.
38 people are mentioned as interventionists. Many are listed with reading, some math. I have no idea what they do. Remedial?
176 Teachers are listed as Special Ed. Those salaries total: $14,127,516.09. If I was paying Unit 5 property taxes, I’d be asking questions! How many students are Special Ed? Are they teaching “migrants” or are lots of students just needing extra help?
Another 52 people are listed as Teacher: Speech/Language/Pathologist. They total $4,763,379.72.
1 person is listed as Teacher – Transitional Bilingual: $74,308.70
19 people are listed as MTSS, some of those have interventionists listed with it. That pertains to State mandates for social emotional learning. See this website for more information: https://www.powerschool.com/blog/mtss/
The last person on the report is the UFEA President – Full Time Rel – $110,158.63. In my world the teachers union should be paying their representative’s salary. Of course, Unit 5 is in Illinois so taxpayers do.
I’m sure there are other interesting positions I didn’t list. I bet lots of them didn’t exist not that long ago.
How many positions pertain to teaching students under Illinois sanctuary state policies? Taxpayers deserve to know what they are paying for.
Those employee counts do not match what they reported to the federal government. This is self reported data for 2024-2025:
1,916 employees, 864 teachers, 1052 all other employees. So where are these missing 600 employees? Who is paying for them?
https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=1&State=17&County=Mclean+County&ID2=1728620
That’s interesting!
I don’t see any secretaries and misc staff listed on their report.
Diane, I looked at the source of the first attachment that says – “Illinoisans strongly support public education.” https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14aQhxeEQLX/?
It was a poll of 1000 Illinoisans. This was not a poll to gather data or information, it’s what is called a “push poll”.
It’s essentially:
propaganda dressed up as research.
a message-delivery vehicle pretending to be a survey.
a tactic used to influence, not to learn.
It is easy to see by the questions that are asked and how they are asked that the whole thing is meant to shape public opinion about the need to spend more money on Illinois’ failed SEL/DEI education system.
The video the produced stated they weren’t necessarily voters
Yes. I’d like to know how many were teachers
Oh well don’t our leftist democrats state that illegals pay taxes I am certain that they pay more than enough to cover all the additional cost that are incurred with their non English speaking students in the classroom
Just saying, NOT!!!