Tuesday
October 07, 2008
by Cheryl Chapman and Sonya Collins
On September 30, 2008 we both attended the House Education Committee budget hearing in South Holland. Among the people offering testimony to the committee were people from A+ Illinois, the Illinois PTA; The Illinois Education Association; Ralph Martire; Voices for Illinois Children students, school teachers, staff and administrators, and members of the general public. A solid majority of the speakers made the case that our Illinois schools are underfunded at the foundation level. They further stated that the inequities between schools are unethical. The current property tax funding system may keep education under local control, but it insures that a child’s zip code determines the quality of the that child’s schools.
Sonya spoke to the hearing about her own experiences with the inequities in school funding. She pointed out that she was a product of the CPS system, a graduate of the University of Chicago, Concordia University and now a doctorate student at Roosevelt University. She described to the panel how two summers ago she held back tears as she walked into the computer lab of a high school in Naperville, Illinois. There for professional development, she was amazed by the seemingly unlimited resources available to students there. She was also hurt to realize that Illinois schools are still separate and unequal!
We all know that property in poor and middle income areas cannot generate enough revenue to fund education. Likewise the state’s over-reliance on property taxes is what has caused this great inequality in school funding. The State must provide more money for school funding. The national average is for states to cover 50% of education costs. Currently, Illinois provides just 32%. Even though the government can provide some funding, it is clear that we must increase the state’s portion to at least 50% to try and reduce the disparities between poor and wealthy areas and bring the school funding formula closer to the national average. A state-wide tax reform is necessary to reform school funding—we cannot continue to rely on the local tax base. Likewise we need to increase income tax rates for individuals, corporations and expand the state sales tax base. Doing so could generate almost 9 billion dollars in new revenue. Surely if Henry Paulson can request and practically demand 700 billion dollars to bailout Wall Street, we can work together to supply the monies necessary to provide all children with an adequate education.
It was pointed out to the Committee that research shows the correlations between student achievement and school funding. Sonya specifically asked the Committee to tell the 3100 students in her Dolton school district that the quality of their education won’t continue to be determined by the wealth of the community where they live and that Illinois politicians understand that they must overcome enormous odds to obtain an education. She prevailed upon the legislators to not fear about their re-election chances because SB2288 increases taxes. According to a poll by Associated Press, 61% of Illinois voters will support a tax increase that improves education.
Golden Apple along with National Louis University co-sponsored community forums on education funding one year ago, and each year we hope that “this will be the year!” So far, that year has never arrived. Many people spoke in favor of Senate Bill 2288. All of the speakers were well-received by the committee, and they promised to educate their fellow House members. Hopefully more of us in the TEN community will continue to inform ourselves and people in our educational communities about the very important issue of educational funding, especially the most-echoed issue of the evening: How do we move forward?
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Not that I should be commenting on my own blog, but I just got done reading Dom Belmonte’s article in the Fellow’s newsletter. In it, he says that he hopes Golden Apple will find its political voice. For instance, legislators should wonder what we think about funding! My take on this is that GOLDEN APPLE must work together with others in this state to move forward to a solution. My current preferences are A+ Illinois, Voices for Illinois Children, League of Women Voters, Ralph Martire & the CTBA, the IEA and the CTU/AFT! Plus, teachers, staff, admin, parents, students and children. Rev. Meeks has been doing a great job of getting school busloads of kids and their families involved already this school year! What a dream - equitable and adequate funding within my lifetime!
Bravo Sonya and Cheryl! You couldn’t have stated your case any more clearly. I too attended one of the House Education Committee hearings this last week. This one was in Skokie. Unfortunately, I found it to be disappointing and depressing. Although there was a large and vocal group of teachers’ union members outside the building, calling for better school funding, none of those teachers came inside to hear what the politicians had to say or make their own comments. Once inside I found that I was virtually the only attendee who didn’t have a personal axe to grind and who wasn’t on the agenda of speakers. I was just a concerned teacher. Where were the rest of the teachers??
We were admonished by State Senator Lou Lang NOT to give impassioned speeches about the need to improve the equity of school funding in Illinois. They already agree with us. What they wanted was our ideas on HOW to fix the problem. Unfortunately, as I checked out the agenda, I realized that the first 2 hours and 20 minutes would be devoted to those folks who were listed on the agenda and, in most cases, had an agenda for their organization. Plain old members of the public who might have wanted to comment on the immorality of our state’s funding inequities and HOW to fix them, just because they are wrong, would have to wait through those 140 minutes of speakers and then would have 20 minutes (shared with others) to make a comment. I heard one panelist, whose agenda involved getting more charter schools, use the tired old refrain that throwing more money at underperforming schools won’t make a difference. And anyway, he commented, Chicago already spends nearly as much as New Trier does, per pupil. I have taught in both places and all I could think was, “yeah, right.” Walk a mile in my shoes as a CPS teacher mister. We need better funding and until we get it, you won’t convince me that it won’t help.
I kept thinking that if this committee really did care about our thoughts on how to fix this horrible quagmire, then why didn’t they allow more time for us to speak? What I would have said, had I been able to speak was: “why in the world don’t we look at the 48 or 49 other states in this country that have managed to fund their schools more equitable than Illinois? See what they have done. Looking to those who have succeeded at something and following their lead isn’t exactly rocket science!
Lucy Klocksin
Here I am, responding to our blog again! Thanks for the comments everyone. A friend I made at the South Holland hearings is Tanya Iida from A+ Illinois. I’ve been advising her as she sets up A+ Roundtables throughout the area. So, if you have some good ideas about how to achieve equitable funding in Illinois, please attend one - mine in particular - from 4 -6 p.m. at the LaGrange Public Library (Cossitt and LaGrange Road)on November 24th. Visit the A+ Illinois website if you live in another area and would like to go to one!
It’s Cheryl, back again! Regarding the previous comment, if you are looking to blame teachers, don’t! I hung out with the domonstrators for a while and hugged some of them on my way in - I’ve seen many of them at NEA/IEA conventions for years. They are a nice activist lot, but they are also teachers and staffers with lives and families.
Any active teacher or IEA member knows that any state budget hearings can go until midnight, and trust me: You don’t want to face a classroom of 30 active and ready-to-learn second graders in the morning with only 5 hours of sleep the night before! This is part of the problem with the whole system: While you the teacher are working way more than 8 to 3 on any given weekday, and attending endless meetings afterschool, often working on extra graduate hours due to federal or state government regulations about how you must keep current with your profession, you simply don’t have the time to lobby for yourself or your profession, nor to respond to all the abuse that politicians heap upon our schools as they scramble all over each other trying to reach the top of their hopeless political heap. That’s partly why we have to have unions - to give us a voice while we are busy working!
So, I did see some parents with children and some teachers who came in, but left before the meeting’s end. It is important that they were there to listen, but as Lucy said above, it would be nice if the general public could make their remarks at these hearings first, instead of waiting for all of the official people on the agenda to give their speeches, great as they were. And I also heard some people speaking as reps of various IEA locals. The teachers, for the most part, had gone home to cook with their families, work out, correct papers, take care of aging parents, read to their own kids and help them with homework, and so forth. They were counting on their elected IEA reps to state their choices. When I was a teacher, I was allowed to go to a daytime A+ event with the superintendent once, and occasional meetings regarding state funding at Golden Apple during the school day, but everything else was on my own time. I did attend a state budget hearing once, and it lasted until midnight so I learned my lesson! But, now that I am retired, I can set my own hours I can advocate much more effectively. I would certainly encourage other retirees to look for educational advocacy activities that they always wanted to do but couldn’t while they were teaching! So, thanks for the comment, and this IS how it is!
A further response from Cheryl chapman,
Over 50% - I love it! And when you write or visit your legislators and the governor to tell them that, you might consider pointing out how unfair it is that for some school districts in areas where property taxes won’t fill the budget, the percentage of their budget paid by our state taxes is higher, but still not enough, and in many school districts, only from 3 to 30% is paid by the state. In my opinion, over 50% of each district’s revenues should come from the state (lottery, etc.) and then the property tax burden on “mainstreet” could be lessened. This is one reason why some (although not most) supporters of education funding changes wanted a constitutional convention. I am also a member of the League of Women Voters though, and there I’ve learned that we can get a change in the funding level practices by simply making changes to the constition, not by changing the whole thing! Could be a way to approach your idea. And…
If you (and anyone else reading this) are anywhere near Wilmette, please go to this A+ Illinois Roundtable meeting:
Wednesday, Dec. 3rd
4:00 p.m.
Wilmette Public Library
1242 Wilmette Avenue in Wilmette
RSVP to Laurel Bault:
<mailto:lbault@aplusillinois.org> or 630-484-4874
The people there are anxiously awaiting your ideas. Even if you can’t go, please e-mail Laurel Bault and tell her your ideas!!! A+ is working closely with the legislature, and they are holding a series of roundtables to see what citizens want. One week ago I went to the one in LaGrange. People in the audience were from different school districts and community organizations and they let the conveners know that we all want effective school funding legislation that includes fairness, accountability, and will result in a quality education for all the kids in our state. Specific issues discussed included increasing the educational foundation level (EFAB), a graduated tax increase, an increase in state income taxes, counteracting TIF losses, and how best to work together to accomplish this. Good luck!!! And thanks for being a part of this journey to equitable state funding for ALL of our kdis!!!
I was met with a pleasant surprise when I attended a roundtable discussion about school funding equity this week in Wilmette. I realized that this north shore community where we have made our home for 30 years has developed a strong social conscience. Unlike days gone by when I can remember neighbors laughing at my naiveté for my belief that school funding should be more equitable, I encountered people who shared my beliefs on this thorny issue. If anyone in the room disagreed that more equitable funding is the right thing to do, they didn’t speak up, and everyone was invited to speak their minds.
Not once did I hear the tired old refrain about how throwing more money at the problem isn’t going to fix bad schools. No one expressed concern that the beautiful schools in this community would be robbed to pay the bills of poorly funded schools. I felt real pride to be from Wilmette. I also felt that pride in September when Reverend Meeks brought busses filled with Chicago Public School children to New Trier High School (NTHS), in a symbolic attempt to register them for classes. Instead of the protesters and hateful words I worried would greet these young people, north shore residents carried signs of welcome and invited participants in for refreshments.
Most encouraging to me at this roundtable discussion was that two students from NTHS came and spoke of the organization they have begun. Illinois Council of Students has reached out to students from poorly funded schools, they have written a student bill of rights, they have developed ideas for improving this deplorable system of funding schools and most importantly they are using their voices to speak out against something that is morally wrong. These are the students who would have registered black voters in the 1960s or marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. It lifted my heart to see this strong social conscience is still alive and well and it’s right in my own back yard.
Unfortunately the words of one attendee keeps reverberating in my head even louder than the hopeful words. Gary Dolinko of Neighbors for Strong Schools commented that solutions to our horrific funding inequities for schools have been proposed more than once. The problem is not that solutions don’t exist. The problem is that our state legislators and our governor aren’t willing to pass the needed legislation.
Illinois has the least equitably funded schools in the nation. Poor children get poor schools and the children of the rich get well funded schools. I’m proud of my community but shame on our state legislature and our governor for allowing this immoral situation to persist year after year. Every other state in this country has found a way to deal with this problem better than Illinois. Why aren’t we looking to them to figure out how to do it, instead of ignoring the problem?
Illinois Council of Students has reached out to students from poorly funded schools, they have written a student bill of rights, they have developed ideas for improving this deplorable system of funding schools and most importantly they are using their voices to speak out against something that is morally wrong. These are the students who would have registered black voters in the 1960s or marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. It lifted my heart to see this strong social conscience is still alive and well and it’s right in my own back yard.
Thanks, Rap Beats! Chapman here again - I hope you will invite anyone with Illinois Council of Students to blog more about what they are thinking about regarding equitable and better educational funding in Illinios here. Any ideas that they have as to how teachers, Golden Apple, and other funding activists can help them out will be happily read and hopefully acted upon - networking and actions at this point can only help. 
On a crispy cold February morning in Chicago, hundreds of people active in their communities and schools came together for Voices for Illinois Children’s symposium, “Illinois Kids Count 2009.” The first hour was spent presenting a remarkable report, EDUCATION for the 21st Century. Go on line to http://www.voices4kids.org if you are interested in learning more. An overview of our 2 million Illinois school children was given, who they are, and where they go to school, what the programs are like for all ages.
My particular interest is in more equitable funding for our children – the lowest per pupil per year spending in Illinois should be at the level of the current state average – without taking anything away from the wealthy districts. Although many taxpayers consider the wealthiest districts wasteful and their students spoiled, I disagree: there is no such thing as “too good” a school. I’ve taught in the private sector too – there is nothing wrong with having wonderful supplies for science and math, classroom libraries of more than 1,000 books to chose from as well as a terrific regular library, a minimum of 5 computers in each classroom, sheltered English programs, lovely, clean, safe, and well-maintained buildings, swimming and foreign language lessons early on, small class sizes and assistants during “center” time, parent programs and support, and easy access to medical and social services. Still, in spite of my hopes and everyone else’s for a better day, it was sobering to hear about how Illinois’ financial crisis is hurting our schools throughout the state. People, we really don’t want to lose any more generations. The state of Illinois should be exporting well-prepared technical wizards world-wide – not importing foreign talent on HB-1 visas!!!
I attended the School Finance workshop, run by Larry Joseph (Voices), Mary Ellen Guest (Consultant), Tom Johnson (Taxpayers Federation of Illinois), and a representative from Chicago Public Schools. Sadly, nobody had any good news to share, other than that Illinois is currently in a big crisis and sometimes in the midst of a crisis great opportunities evolve. Most likely, any “Stimulus Money” for education in Illinois will only serve to fill in what is lost, and not to start any new programs or actually improve anything. I also got the distinct impression that until we get a completely new legislature, educational funding in Illinois will not be moving forward. I refuse to lose hope! I like our new governor and I think he understands our crisis in education. If anyone can break that legislative log-jam in Springfield, it’s Pat Quinn.
Our keynote speaker at lunchtime was Richard Rothstein, author and consultant from the Economic Policy Institute. His speech, “A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education,” (please visit the website http://www.boldapproach.org) was right on-target and well-received. A broader approach needed? Absolutely!
1. School improvements - not through testing and sanctions but through smaller class sizes at the early grades, getting the best teachers into the most challenging schools, coordinating curriculum from pre-school through high school (maybe have less than 877 school districts in Illinois?), and special attention to many of the disaggregated groups ESEA/NCLB currently measures. There are two funding issues here: First – follow the money – who benefits from ISAT testing financially? Second – One-size-fits-all testing is probably the cheapest and most counterproductive way to achieve the actual good idea of leaving no children behind.
2. Increase investment in developmentally appropriate and high quality early childhood, pre-school, and kindergartens.
3. Increase investment in health services. Research shows that the routine health care, medical and dental, that middle class Americans used to take for granted virtually works miracles at improving children’s school performance!
4. Realize that students need real-life experiences - sports, games, trips, culture, enrichment of all kinds, far more than ESEA/NCLB’s remedial tutoring in order to make it in life.
A favorite speaker for me was Cheryle Jackson, the first female head of the Chicago Urban League. They have put together a lawsuit saying that Illinois’ inequitable educational funding practices (we are #48 in the USA in terms of the disparity between poor districts and wealthy districts) violate the civil rights of the children in this state. Keep an eye on that issue, especially in the month of March!
Overall, it was an interesting, yet sobering day. There is crisis; there is hope.
