The State of the State                                                                              

On school finance:
No bandleader amid the
steady drumbeat of 'Where's mine?'

Legislators rarely act in response to need; they act out of political advantage

By DONALD SEVENER

"John Maitland reminds me of everything I don't like about the General Assembly.

Maitland, a Republican senator from Bloomington and an assistant majority leader in the Senate, is high-minded, public spirited, statesmanlike and motivated not by a compulsion for re-election, but by a desire to do what he believes is right. Which reminds me of how little he resembles most of his colleagues from either party in both legislative chambers who seem all too willing to give into petty political posturing, parochial political impulses and personal political ambitions.

All of which explains why the General Assembly (yet again) failed in its spring session to enact significant reform of the way Illinois funds its public schools.

The need for reform is unquestioned. Public education in Illinois is underfunded, and some school districts are vastly underfunded. The disparities in per-pupil spending between the richest (generally suburban) and poorest (mostly rural or inner-city) school districts are so egregious that the courts will some day take note and demand that the state even things out.

But legislators rarely act in response to need (it took lawsuits to bring change to the state's mental health and child welfare systems); they act out of political advantage. With control of the legislature and governor's office, Republicans now hold all the advantages. They have used them not for long-term solutions to long-standing problems in child welfare, health care for the poor and aged, corrections or school finance, but to reward their allies (making liability laws more favorable to business and doctors, for instance) or to play to the whims of the public (tough welfare reform measures and "truth in sentencing" legislation to keep criminals behind bars). And though candidates find there often is much to be said for campaigning in favor of schoolkids, there is scant political advantage in reforming school finance to make funding more equitable because such reform would cost a bundle and thus risk alienating those who already feel unduly burdened by a school finance scheme designed to take from the haves and give to the have-nots.

That explains why, when Sen. Aldo DeAngelis, a Republican from suburban Olympia Fields, proposed a billion-dollar tax increase to raise education funding, his plan attracted 15 votes in the Senate, half the number needed for passage. The bill was thus spared a futile voyage to the House where Speaker Lee Daniels made a pre-emptive declaration that no tax increases would emerge from the House this year — and none have. Perhaps voters should demand that legislators place a "truth in campaigning" law on the shelf right next to "truth in sentencing."

In a sense, the demise of DeAngelis' proposal is just as well, for it illustrates another dismaying trait of lawmaking in Illinois: parochialism. DeAngelis' proposal would have revised the state school aid formula to steer more money to the sort of well-off suburban districts that he represents, thus relieving a gnawing grievance of suburbanites, the frustration of having their tax dollars pass through Springfield on their way to some other school district, notably Chicago. This is an enduring vexation, and suburban lawmakers eager to oblige their constituents' wishes have longed for the power they now hold to rectify the imbalance that they perceive results from the tendency of the state school aid formula to funnel state dollars from affluent school districts to poorer ones.

It is an impulse John Maitland has tried to resist. "I'm concerned about all boys and girls in the state," he told Illinois Issues back in March. "Not just the children in the suburbs, or those in Chicago, or even in my downstate district." His is a lonely voice of statesmanship drowned out by a steady drumbeat of "Where's mine?"

So what of the drum major? Is there a leader of this band?

Not really. In what passes for political leadership in Illinois, Gov. Jim Edgar has appointed (yet another) task force to look into the matter of school finance and recommend what to do. The new task force might, as its first order of business, dust off the report of the last task force (co-

8/June 1995/Illinois Issues

chaired by Maitland), although the recommendations of the Illinois Task Force on School Finance are hardly so old — 17 months — as to have gathered much dust. That task force found that schools needed more money and some schools needed lots more money. It proposed revamping the school finance system and adding a billion-five to fund it.

Pretty scary if you're a politician. Unless you're a politician like John Maitland.

In a government run by task force, it might be time to appoint the Illinois Task Force on Political Courage. John Maitland could chair it. *