Josh Stumpenhorst with IEA President Cinda Klickna.
Naperville’s Stumpenhorst featured in radio ad
A social studies/language arts teacher at Naperville’s Lincoln Junior High School is featured in a new back-to-school radio ad created by the Illinois Education Association (IEA).
The teacher is Josh Stumpenhorst, the 2012 Illinois Teacher of the Year.
“Josh personifies what IEA members are all about,” said IEA President Cinda Klickna.
“He’s a hard-working teacher who cares deeply about his students and is dedicated to their success. We couldn’t ask for a better representative of our profession,” she added.
In the radio ad, Stumpenhorst says IEA “supports quality educators, fights for our schools and holds politicians accountable.” Listen to the new IEA radio ad
The IEA media campaign is designed to spotlight what IEA and its members stand for. According to President Klickna, too often the news media focuses on the negative about public education, ignoring the positive contributions education employees make daily.
The public seems to be getting the message.
In a recent statewide poll of likely voters, three-quarters of those interviewed described teachers as “underappreciated” and a majority also describe teachers as “underpaid.”
The poll showed the public opposes cutting pensions of retired teachers. Voters say teachers should receive the pensions they were promised.
“The public perception of IEA and teachers remains positive, despite years of attacks on all public employee unions,” Klickna said.
“Communicating the truth helps us at the state level as we fight to make sure our members, who don’t get Social Security, get the pensions they have paid for. And the campaign supports advocacy at the local level, when our members are fighting for manageable class sizes and fair contracts,” the IEA president said. The ad is running on radio stations throughout Illinois.
Since being named the state’s top teacher earlier this year, Stumpenhorst has been presenting to and collaborating with college students, teachers and administrators, in addition to preparing for another year in the classroom. He also represented IEA in a variety of venues including serving as a Grand Marshal at the Illinois State Fair parade in Springfield and also threw out the first pitch at IEA Night at Wrigley Field in June.
The Illinois Education Association-NEA, with more than 133,000 members, is the state’s largest education employees’ organization. IEA represents elementary and secondary teachers outside the city of Chicago, education support professionals (ESPs), higher education faculty, staff and graduate assistants, retired education employees and students planning to become teachers.
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Illinois Education Association is an association of more than 130,000 members composed of Illinois elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.