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Rev. James Meeks joined Roland Martin on “NewsOne Now” to discuss why he and a group of Black pastors in Chicago backed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner over Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn.

Meeks told Martin on “NewsOne Now,” “The Democrats in 2012 passed $7 billion tax increase and didn’t include any money for education.” According to Meeks this bill was supposed to direct $2 billion towards education.

He added, “I think that African American people are so wedged into one party, even if they break their promise we don’t ever hold them accountable and so they know they can come to our community make any promise, break it and then we’re going to have to vote for them anyway because we always vote Democratic.”

Meeks said, “… this time I wanted to try to show people that there are some options and we don’t have to always vote Democratic.”

Meeks said he was willing to put everything on the line to secure funds for Illinois schools. Meeks told Martin “we’ve wasted 14 years in our state with the same argument, how are we doing to fund our schools. We just closed 56 schools last year because the state has not appropriated enough money … and nobody is holding the party that is in control [accountable].”

Meeks said, “… for some reason education is not the priority of the Democrats here in this state of Illinois and so, we got to make a move.”

Listen to Meeks’ comments in their entirety below.

Be sure to listen to “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 7 a.m. EST and watch at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

Rev. James Meeks: Education Not A Priority To Dems In Illinois, We Had To Make A Move  was originally published on newsone.com