Metro East Sun

Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Paul Schimpf is warning Illinoisans of the powers the state superintendent of education holds. 

“You'd be shocked if you knew how much power this un-elected bureaucrat will wield as State Superintendent. This should be an elected, statewide office that is accountable to voters,” Schimpf said on Twitter.

Schimpf’s comments come as the Illinois State Board of Education named Dr. Tony Sanders as the new state superintendent of education.

Sanders became the superintendent of Elgin-based School District U-46 in 2014. Elgin U46 is the state’s second-largest school district with over 39,000 students in 40 elementary schools, eight middle schools and five high schools. 

He was promoted to the state superintendent despite a nine-year tenure for which Wirepoints pointed out ended with poor outcomes for many students.

“At U-46, just 1 in every 10 minority students can read at grade level. For all students, it’s just 2 in 10. Sanders has been in the district since 2007 and was named superintendent there in 2014,” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner wrote.

He also has received criticism after several incidents of bullying were publicized. 

“They are letting the anti-mask children –– they’re calling them –– be assaulted, literally assaulted, and they are congratulating those students,” Martin said. “She got her hand shaken by the teachers and my child.” 

U-46 also continued a mask mandate policy after mandatory masking was ruled unconstitutional. That rule would have enacted mandatory masking based on Covid rates in the school district.

Sanders was named to the top spot to replace Dr. Carmen Ayala, who had stepped down from the job. 

Ayala held the job since her appointment on March 1, 2019. She was heavily criticized for her leadership of the department as schools continued lockdowns and unconstitutionally enforcing mandatory masking in schools despite the low-risk Covid presents to children.

School scores plummeted during Ayala’s tenure and rancor and community disputes within many local school districts increased. Illinois stands apart from surrounding states in that its kids missed more classroom instruction than across-the-borders peers. According to the Associated Press, Illinois kept its schools closed long after it became clear that they were not the "super spreaders" that had been feared. 

As a result, between March 2020 and June 2021, the typical Chicago student missed half a school year, or 21 weeks in reading and 20 weeks in arithmetic. The epidemic seems to have had less of an impact on academic uptake in the states and school systems that prioritized in-person instruction.

In an April 2022 Illinois State Board of Education meeting Awake Illinois founder Shannon Adcock called on Ayala to resign for not doing more to protect the integrity of education across the state during the pandemic. 

"Carmen Ayala should resign, as should every member on the board who did not fight for children and lawful due process the last two years who all waged war on our children," Adcock told Prairie State Wire. "They should all be gone, every one of them. Other than that, they're doing great."  Later in the year, Ayala announced her resignation effective February 2023.