Illinois is in for some changes with JB Pritzker as governor. Pritzker is a member of the Democratic party, and he recently won the Illinois Gubernatorial election. Pritzker stated on his campaign website, “We’re going to bring back good-paying jobs, expand access to affordable healthcare coverage, and work to make sure every child gets a quality education, no matter his or her zip code.”
The first step to this is introducing a new healthcare option called Illinois Cares. Illinois Cares is an act that creates new options for healthcare either through the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace or Illinois’ Medicaid program. This could help the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by strengthening it and increasing the benefits even more, but it will be essential if the ACA is discontinued by Trump.
Pritzker intends to put into action his five-point plan in education systems for early childhood education. His plan is to first, ensure that every child participates in kindergarten. The second part is to put Illinois on a path towards universal preschool for three and four-year-olds. Third, he intends to increase access to the Child Care Assistance Program. Fourth, he will expand birth-to-three services and create a new “family engagement portal,” and fifth, he intends to invest in adding more teachers and classrooms. Pritzker believes that early education is the foundation for helping students with academics in the future and helping them become college ready.
Pritzker has been against Trump from the beginning and believes that Trump will “wreak havoc on the lives of Illinois families.” Pritzker mainly wants to be a voice that opposes many of Trump’s plans that will hurt the people of Illinois and he wants to be a voice for those who cannot speak up. He wants to advocate for equal rights for everyone, and he wants to fight to make sure that the ACA is not abolished. All we can do now is wait and see how Pritzker affects the future of Illinois.