A major teachers' union has chosen who it's backing in this year's elections. Public employee unions suffered a huge defeat last year, when their years-long battle to protect their members' pensions came to an end.
The law Gov. Pat Quinn signed reduces benefits for state workers, but also for all public school teachers outside of Chicago.
A blow that typically would be enough to sever any politicians' previous goodwill with unions. Instead, the Illinois Education Association's board of directors has voted unanimously to back Quinn, a Democrat, over his Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner.
The IEA's spokesman, Charles McBarron:
"They took that position because the governor is the one candidate who most closely shares the IEA commitment to giving students everywhere in the state the opportunity to attend a great public school."
Key in on McBarron's last two words, "public school".
Rauner is a big supporter of charter schools, which are technically public but in most cases use non-union teachers; one in Chicago is even named in Rauner's honor.
