Education

Next in importance to our faith and people having jobs to pay their mortgages and put food on the table, I believe that our top policy priority ought to be educating our children for their future. In the State Senate I've sponsored many initiatives seeking to improve and protect education in Illinois. More recently, I've focused on legislation correcting the over-reliance on property taxes to fund our public elementary and secondary schools. SB2793 and SB2696 are initial attempts to make progress.   

• Senate Bill 2793 requires all schools in Illinois, including Chicago, to spend at least 65% of their funding in the classroom.  It allows a Downtown Chicago Pilot Program for "educational choice" so that poor parents would have the same freedom to choose their children's schools as wealthier parents have in Illinois. This bill proposes to take one-half (this figure should be 75% in an amended 2007 version) of the per pupil spending in Chicago ($6000) to any school they select for the best interest of their child, while leaving the other "one-half" behind to try to solve the problem for those who choose to stay.  I believe that our public schools, teachers, and administrators can eventually successfully compete for every child in Illinois, but our system must be focused on providing benefit to our kids.

• By freezing property tax assessments at the time of purchase, Senate Bill 2696 not only guarantees property owners will receive substantial, permanent property tax relief, but also provides an alternative source of funding to fill the needs of our schools by "leveling the playing field" for the proper collection of sales tax on retail purchases made over the Internet. Twenty percent of the sales taxes collected from this source would go to local government in the same way that sales tax is currently distributed, and the remaining 80% would go back to school districts on an equitable per-pupil allocation, so that every child in every school district benefits by receiving their fair share.  SB2696 also creates the finance mechanism for developers to pay the total impact and transition fees up front that schools need while spreading the expense over 10 years, as homes are sold.  

Nonpublic schools also provide an excellent education to our children as well as save property and state taxpayers approximately $10,000 (on average) per child, per year. I have proudly sponsored the pilot program for education choice, tuition tax credits for parents who select private and parochial schools, and measures to protect these schools' accreditation, as well as transportation and textbook funding, in order to give all parents choices about how to best educate their children.

To read more thoughts on Education, please click on the following "Voice from the Senate Floor" topics: Opportunity for Constructive Action, Capital Spending Done Properly, Too Important to Demagogue, Back to School, We've Had Enough--Real Property Tax Reform, So We Say "It's About the Kids", Back to School Specials, There Are More Words in Math Books Than Numbers, and Recognition for All Illinois Schools.