On the financial woes of District 33

Our elementary school district faces serious financial difficulties. The cause of these difficulties are complex. However, the primary cause remains the insistence of both our federal and state governments mandating programs with the promise of funding but not providing the funding.

The thrust of debate within our school board, within the administration, and within our community (or at least among those who take an active interest) centers on what must be cut and what must remain. A healthy debate about cutting budgets of any public sector institution serves us all well. All public sector institutions develop fat and must be aggressively challenged to force any cuts at all. District 33 is faced with cutting muscle and bone, not fat.

I sat through the public discussion of what muscle and what bone should be sacrificed shaking my head. The District 33 School Board must decide between larger class size (as many as 37 students to a class) and programming. No one wants to approach the community with another referendum. I do not want another referendum. Yet, our elementary school system faces real difficulties.

The school administration would like to see a ground swell to support a currently hibernating House Bill that would drastically change the tax structure in Illinois. This bill will not get passed. I stand with the many that oppose this bill. The bill increases income and sales tax and adds new consumer taxes with service taxes with the promise that the state will fund education. I heard this when the state instituted income tax, when the state increased (temporarily) the income tax rate, when the state instituted the Lottery, and when the state authorized casino boat gambling. The State of Illinois still does not fund education after establishing all these new education revenue resources. The State of Illinois just continues to eat up our money.

What can we do? We can force the State of Illinois to meet its constitutional requirement to provide the primary funding for education. Our school board can continue to spend in the red. Our school board can communicate with the other 85% of Illinois school boards currently running deficit budgets to stand together in deficit spending. The State is required to take over school districts if those districts continue to run deficit budgets. Faced with the prospect of having to take over 85% of the state’s schools will create a crisis in Springfield that our state government will not be able to ignore.

Our school board will be disbanded (and undoubtedly reprimanded) and our superintendent will probably be fired along with much of his administrative staff. We will not be represented by an elected board to oversee the running of our schools. This should not last long. The state is not prepared to run 85% of the schools in this state.

This approach would be bold, fraught with potential difficulties and uncertainties, and risky. This approach would be historic. News organizations would cover this story and publicize the failure of our state government to take seriously the state’s obligation to fund education. Public service organizations would respond in mass to demand action by the state.

Government only makes change in crisis or when to do so adds power and money to those in office. This would create a crisis.

Brad Smith
Wizofodd2@aol.com