This much is certain: Gov. Rod Blagojevich reached for too much revenue and proposed a meet-every-need agenda the people of his state cannot afford. So his grandiose proposed budget lies in tatters. The Illinois House shredded that budget Thursday, rejecting the idea of the gross-receipts tax Blagojevich saw as a gusher of new tax dollars.
Illinois still needs a budget for the fiscal year that starts in seven-plus weeks. But before legislators race willy-nilly to embrace this or that alternative to the governor’s defrocked tax plan, they should have the discussion each of us routinely has in our households and workplaces:
What do we want to accomplish in 2007? Different, sizable clusters of Illinois citizens make compelling cases this year to better fund public education, and health care, and highways, and mass transit, and … But what do we need? What can wait? What’s the order of our priorities?
These needs are too important, too deserving, to consider en masse. Let’s weigh them individually, embracing some and postponing others. That’s what we have to do in our personal and work lives. It’s what we have to do in our civic lives as well: say yes, and also say no.
Exhibit A: education. We know that the best way to improve student achievement is to boost the quality of teachers and principals. One proven way to do that is to provide intensive mentoring and induction for new teachers and principals. Other high-impact strategies: reduce class sizes in early grades in high-poverty districts, support and train teachers to use student-assessment data to fine-tune curricula throughout the year, and reward teachers with higher pay for significant student gains.
So we know what works. If, as this page hopes, legislators make education a top priority this year, they need to settle on proven strategies, calculate the price tag of each and come up with a sum. Not the other way around. The Tribune editorial board did this in its recent “From Here to Excellence” series, concluding that the seven research-based strategies that would have the highest impact on students would cost Illinois an additional $3 billion a year.
But we also have argued that no new money should go to public education until legislators demand, and secure, reforms in how today’s money is spent. That means setting tough new financial standards for school boards and administrators. And it means rethinking a costly pension system that digs itself deeper in the hole each time a new teacher — a new potential pension liability — joins a school district payroll.
This demands courage from legislators buffeted by teachers unions and other interest groups. But knowing what Illinois wants to achieve this year, and recognizing how much money reforms would free up, let lawmakers answer two questions: How much money do we need? From where, or whom, should it come?
A final suggestion: Interest groups (and citizens) should be telling lawmakers not just what they oppose, but what they support. The testy debate on Blagojevich’s tax plan has given too many Illinoisans the idea that it’s fair to be negative without offering good alternatives.
It’s a new day. We the people of Illinois are liberated to build a budget.
Now, what’s the order of our priorities this year? Knowing that, how much money do we need? From where, or whom, should it come?
