More than 125 educators, business executives and voters went to school at the crack of dawn Friday for coffee, rolls, and a debate on schools.
Thomas Scullen, superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204 covering parts of Naperville and Aurora, set a 6:30 a.m. start time for a debate on the proposed state constitutional amendment on school funding at Steck Elementary School in Aurora.
One of the debaters, state Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-Naperville)
declared that the proposed amendment amounts to a referendum on taxes and is not about schools.
The question on the Nov. 3 ballot asks voters for their opinion on whether to amend the education article of the state constitution to make state government responsible for a ”preponderant” share of funding for Illinois elementary and high schools.
”Be not deceived,” Cowlishaw said. ”This amendment is not about education. It is about taxes and about how much you are willing to pay and how much you are going to get back.”
Since 1975, the state`s share of school costs has dwindled from 48 to 33 percent. Proponents of the amendment say ”preponderant” would make the state responsible for more than 50 percent of the costs. Supporters and opponents disagree on how much more state money would be needed to meet that criteria, but estimates range from $1.5 billion to $2.9 billion.
Cowlishaw, whose district includes both Naperville Unit School District 203 and Indian Prairie District 204, said each gets only 5 percent of its budget from state funds. The average percentage for the 43 Du Page County school districts is 10 percent.
”We send a whale of a lot of dollars to the State of Illinois,”
Cowlishaw said. ”We get a small minnow back. I would settle for a smallmouth bass.”
Cowlishaw said that of every dollar that Du Page residents pay in state taxes, only 18 cents comes back to the county. She estimated that if the amendment passes, that would drop to 12 cents.
State Sen. John Maitland (R-Bloomington), an author of the amendment, said that although the Constitution gives state lawmakers all the needed authority to increase spending for education, ”the General Assembly doesn`t have the guts to do what has to be done.”
Because legislators have refused to approve a state income tax boost to increase state aid to schools, local school boards raise property taxes to finance added costs, Maitland said.
”It`s time to reverse that,” he declared, calling for support of the amendment that would compel his colleagues to vote for a huge state increase in school funds.
Robert Beckwith, education policy director of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, who opposes the amendment, said that by approving it, voters would be giving the state a ”blank check” to raise taxes.
The fourth speaker, Richard Laine, school finance analyst for the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance, said the amendment is needed to help close the gap in funding inequities.
