Prairie State Wire

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted some of the strictest and longest-lasting lockdown measures in the United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this period of time businesses were forced to comply with safety measures that negatively impacted revenue, and schools moved to online learning where many students struggled to test well according to the Illinois Report Card. Now at the tail end of COVID-19, organizations and individuals are trying to assess whether Pritzker handled the pandemic in the best way he could. One organization, People Who Play By The Rules (PBR) PAC believes that the governor failed in his duties and should be held accountable for the actions his administration took throughout the pandemic.

"As a state, when are we going to start holding Governor Pritzker accountable for his failures during COVID?” PBR PAC spokesman Mike Koolidge said to the Prairie State Wire on Monday. "Policies he enacted that turned out to be completely wrong?”

As of August, Illinois is 1.4% behind the nation in job recovery following the economic downturn that began in March 2020, a recent Illinois Policy report said. The state is still missing 89,000 jobs and has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation at 4.4%. And with policy decisions that have exacerbated the threat of recession, Illinois has been put in a difficult position as the flexibility of the state’s budget is minimal due to pension obligations and a $1.8 billion unemployment trust fund deficit.

Since the start of COVID-19, Illinois has spent nearly $5 billion fighting the negative economic implications of lockdowns, a recent Realms of Discordia report said. The $5 billion spent was a part of Congress' State and Local Recovery Fund Relief Package approved by the Biden administration. The money was meant to stabilize state budgets and finance operating costs to maintain public service costs.

In December 2021, the Chicago Tribune reported on the test data from approximately 90% of the school districts that administered the mandated Illinois Assessment of Readiness for students third through eighth grades and the SAT for high school juniors. The data revealed that from 2019 to 2021, 17% fewer students met grade-level standards in English language arts, and 18% fewer met grade-level standards in math. The participation rates were lower than in prior years, with approximately 70% taking the tests.