As a member of the Governor’s Commission on Education Funding (the Ikenberry Commission) and the president of the Board of Education in West Chicago Elementary District 33, I applaud your April 8 editorial titled “Referendum results a call to inaction?”
I completely agree that the cause of our failed referendum was not solely a message that our constituents did not want a tax increase. Last year we lost by a margin of 1,200 votes, this year by a margin of 300 votes. Obviously many hundreds of people were willing to agree to a tax increase.
So what did happen? I know for a fact that many voters chose to vote “no” in the hopes that education funding reform might finally happen after 20 years. Certainly the Tribune’s front-page article on funding reform on the Monday prior to the voting fueled the hopes that we might see a change coming from Springfield.
Now, not only the taxpayers but the children in West Chicago hope that funding reform becomes a reality so that we can once again have manageable class sizes, band and orchestra, an interscholastic sports program and have the other cuts restored that we were forced to institute to balance our budget and not deficit-spend.
Here’s hoping that the legislators read and understood your editorial.
