Yesterday, I joined members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in a press conference on school funding reform. Recent calls for a boycott of the Chicago Public Schools have, predictably, focused new attention on an old problem: Illinois’ overreliance on local property taxes to fund public schools.
This is not a new issue for me.
In 1998, I was the staff analyst for the Senate Education and Appropriations Committee.
Two years later, I organized a statewide coalition on school funding reform that included unions, businesses, civil rights groups, and civic organizations. We brought in outside experts to demonstrate the state's failure to devote adequate resources to high quality education for our children. We showed how the lack of state support for public schools increased district's reliance on local property taxes, and how the need for property tax reform skewed economic development decisions and created perverse incentives for urban sprawl. All to no avail.
The guaranteed minimum of per-child education spending in the state is still significantly lower than what is needed to adequately serve our children. On the national level, Illinois ranks 49th in state support for public education.
As I learned on the campaign trail this past fall and winter, the consequences are pernicious. Renters struggle to pay rising rents fueled by gentrification and escalating property values. Homeowners are palpably angry about high property tax bills and underperforming schools.
Parents know that their children -- through no fault of their own -- will not reach their full academic potential, because their schools are horribly underfunded. The effects last a lifetime in the form of underemployment, unemployment, and lost wages.
The ramifications are equally bad for the state. Our failure to substantially invest in public education imperils the quality of Illinois' future workforce and its economic competitiveness.
There is an education funding crisis in this state, but it is not readily visible and it lacks the urgency of last year’s transit meltdown.
Districts won’t close their doors anytime soon.
Classrooms are overcrowded, but teachers are still teaching.
No district faces a serious threat of a state takeover.
The key to education funding reform is to make the school funding crisis urgent.
That’s why I support legislation to prohibit the collection of local property taxes for education expenditures and to repeal the school aid formula by 2010. The system is broken and it must be fixed. We should therefore abolish it, by a date certain, so that the General Assembly and governor will be forced to develop an alternative, equitable, and just school funding system.
Some will call this proposal radical. But it is an approach that has worked. In 1993, the Michigan legislature and governor took this unprecedented step and a year later emerged with a new school funding system that boosted state resources for poor school districts and dramatically reduced inequalities between the wealthy and the poor.
Maybe, just maybe, this approach will get us closer to high quality schools for all Illinois children.
Will Burns is the Democratic nominee for state representative in Illinois' 26th District.
Comments
on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 14:46
Well said, Will Burns.
But let me offer a little caution as well.
Michigan's decision to move to the sales tax as the SOLE funding source for its schools has had dire - albeit predictable - consequences.
The slumping economy, far worse in Michigan than the rest of the country due to the collapse of U.S. auto manufacturing, has driven down consumer spending in Michigan and left their schools underfunded.
Eliminating the property tax was a politically popular idea, and I'm sure it will be popular in Illinois. But once the property tax sunsets, will lawmakers have the sense and the will to reinstate it?
on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 08:55
Those are good points. I don't believe that the local property tax in Michigan was eliminated entirely. A statewide property tax was created and coupled with an increase in the sales tax. Local property tax mills were sharply reduced.
Nevertheless, each state is different. Each state has its own mix of property, income, and sales taxes levied by the state and local municipalities. Therefore, the education funding solution in Michigan may not be entirely appropriate for Illinois.
But these are the discussions that we must engage in should this proposal become law. And without an abolition date for the school aid and property tax system, I don't believe that a solution will be created. The crisis is the opportunity.
on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 16:08
Mr. Burns is right. The current system is not functioning and must be changed.
But changed to what?
A progressive income tax is the fairest way to fund education. Like other state infrastructure--roads, courts, communications--the school system is most heavily used by wealthy corporations and individuals, who depend on the education system to deliver competent employees by the millions. They should pay the most to fund the schools through a progressive income tax.
An investment in education makes unproductive citizens into productive ones, benefiting the economy, individual businesses and individuals. All Illinoisans deserve a chance to go as far as they can in life, and show what they're made of.
on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 08:56
I forgot to put name in the 9:55 AM post
-Will Burns
on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 20:35
Not a single Republican voted for constitutional amendments in the House and Senate this year that would've asked voters whether to have a progressive income tax. Fifteen Democrats in the House voted NO as did 18 in the Senate. So we're a long way away from a progressive income tax.
Lennie (not verified) on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 11:22
You don't need a progressive income tax to fix this problem. You need to fund each and every child equally and stop funding the school bureaucracy. See a plan that does just that at Extreme Wisdom.com.
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