Post by title1parent on May 30, 2009 8:15:52 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/opinions/1598050,2_4_AU29_SHERMAN_S1-090529.article
Local reps served well on school funding bill
May 29, 2009 Beacon Opinion
I'm getting ready to pay my June 1 property tax bill. Usually, to blunt the pain of it, I try to think about all the important services those taxes provide. I remember how much we use the library and love the programs in our school district. This time was almost different. I was incensed to learn that after passing that referendum in 2007 for School District 129 -- ostensibly to save programs and staff -- the state's magical formula for deciding how much money is given to districts effectively takes away most of the money our tax dollars raised for our school system for the next three years. I felt betrayed and wondered how, after this experience, any district would be able to pass another school referendum for the next 50 years or so.
Fortunately, our legislators heard us and felt our pain. In April, with chief co-sponsors state senators Linda Holmes and Chris Lauzen, Senate Bill 2051 was passed to remove the penalty for having passed our referendum. The vote was 56-0. I spoke with Sen. Lauzen and he told me that he had heard from many constituents on this issue. He clearly shared my frustration with what had happened and happily, was in a position to help rectify the situation. He said, "As a parent and local legislator in School District 129 I am both relieved and excited about the cooperation among so many interested parties that eliminated the worst of the double whammy provision in the current Illinois School Code."
The bill then passed the House on May 18, its chief House sponsor being State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia with co-sponsor Kay Hatcher. "All children deserve a quality education, and if parents in a community take action to improve their children's school, they should not be penalized by the state," Chapa LaVia said.
SB2051 sits on Gov. Pat Quinn's desk, waiting to be signed. Thankfully, this bill will restore much of the state funding we would have lost by passing our referendum.
District 129's Mike Chapin is still taking a wait and see attitude. He told me the state is overdue in payments to the district to the tune of about $4 million with about five weeks to go in the district's fiscal year, and it could be November before the state starts paying for programs that began this coming July. He told me, "If this pattern continues, the state never fully pays for the programs it is obligated to fund and local taxpayers end up subsidizing the state. We are planning to borrow the money to pay the state's bills this year because we don't have money left in the reserve fund." Because of this, the money that may come back to our district from SB2051 is not being used yet in planning the 2009-2010 school year.
The good news is, having passed with such overwhelming majorities, it is unlikely that Gov. Quinn would fail to sign it. So even if the district makes some initial cuts this fall, things should eventually get back to normal.
My thanks go out to our state senators and representatives for their actions and to all the citizens who voiced their opinion about this issue in the past months. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow if the gains of that referendum had been offset by a decrease in state funding.
Sometimes the system works, even if not as quickly as we would like, and the right thing happens.
deenasherman@att.net
Local reps served well on school funding bill
May 29, 2009 Beacon Opinion
I'm getting ready to pay my June 1 property tax bill. Usually, to blunt the pain of it, I try to think about all the important services those taxes provide. I remember how much we use the library and love the programs in our school district. This time was almost different. I was incensed to learn that after passing that referendum in 2007 for School District 129 -- ostensibly to save programs and staff -- the state's magical formula for deciding how much money is given to districts effectively takes away most of the money our tax dollars raised for our school system for the next three years. I felt betrayed and wondered how, after this experience, any district would be able to pass another school referendum for the next 50 years or so.
Fortunately, our legislators heard us and felt our pain. In April, with chief co-sponsors state senators Linda Holmes and Chris Lauzen, Senate Bill 2051 was passed to remove the penalty for having passed our referendum. The vote was 56-0. I spoke with Sen. Lauzen and he told me that he had heard from many constituents on this issue. He clearly shared my frustration with what had happened and happily, was in a position to help rectify the situation. He said, "As a parent and local legislator in School District 129 I am both relieved and excited about the cooperation among so many interested parties that eliminated the worst of the double whammy provision in the current Illinois School Code."
The bill then passed the House on May 18, its chief House sponsor being State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia with co-sponsor Kay Hatcher. "All children deserve a quality education, and if parents in a community take action to improve their children's school, they should not be penalized by the state," Chapa LaVia said.
SB2051 sits on Gov. Pat Quinn's desk, waiting to be signed. Thankfully, this bill will restore much of the state funding we would have lost by passing our referendum.
District 129's Mike Chapin is still taking a wait and see attitude. He told me the state is overdue in payments to the district to the tune of about $4 million with about five weeks to go in the district's fiscal year, and it could be November before the state starts paying for programs that began this coming July. He told me, "If this pattern continues, the state never fully pays for the programs it is obligated to fund and local taxpayers end up subsidizing the state. We are planning to borrow the money to pay the state's bills this year because we don't have money left in the reserve fund." Because of this, the money that may come back to our district from SB2051 is not being used yet in planning the 2009-2010 school year.
The good news is, having passed with such overwhelming majorities, it is unlikely that Gov. Quinn would fail to sign it. So even if the district makes some initial cuts this fall, things should eventually get back to normal.
My thanks go out to our state senators and representatives for their actions and to all the citizens who voiced their opinion about this issue in the past months. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow if the gains of that referendum had been offset by a decrease in state funding.
Sometimes the system works, even if not as quickly as we would like, and the right thing happens.
deenasherman@att.net