 Peggy
Patten on reforming public funding of our public schools
May 6, 2005
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My name is Peggy Patten. I have worked in the professional
field of early care and education for the past 30 years.
I am a parent of three children who attend (or have
attended) Urbana Public Schools and have volunteered
many hours in Urbana's elementary and middle school
classrooms. In my work in the early education field, I
read many reports about trends in education. One
alarming trend is the decline in support for public
education over the years. Each year our schools are
asked to do more with less and then criticized for not
performing miracles.
What I find most troubling, is the disparity in funding
between poor and wealthy school districts in Illinois.
According to many national reports, our state has the
most inequitable school funding system in the country.
These inequities are a result of our state's reliance on
property taxes to fund public education. Per pupil
spending is as high as $18,000 in property-rich
districts in Illinois and lower than $5,000 per pupil in
property-poor districts, a rate far below the minimum
amount recommended by the state's Education Funding
Advisory Board.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers have crafted
legislation to reform the way we finance public
education in Illinois. The legislation would raise
income taxes from 3% to 5% (a rate that would place
Illinois' tax rate near the median nationally), and
lower property taxes which currently support a
disproportionate share of the cost of educating students
in Illinois. In addition, the school reform measure
would provide a tax credit to low and middle income
families. As a result of the tax swaps included in this
legislation, most taxpayers in Illinois would see
reductions in their total taxes.
We may not be able to alter the misdirected education
goals of the No Child Left Behind legislation, a federal
law which mandates additional standardized testing and
penalizes schools whose students' scores do not improve,
and a worthy topic for another Public Square Commentary;
however, we can greatly influence the quality of
education Illinois children receive by supporting the
school finance reform measure that will be brought
before the Illinois General Assembly this spring.
I encourage listeners to contact their
representatives in Springfield to tell them it is time
to reform the way we finance public education in
Illinois. It is the right thing to do for our children,
for our businesses, and for our communities.
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