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Looking for alternatives
State Rep. Rick Winkel says a conversation with his daughter's middle school teacher opened his eyes to a troubling trend in Illinois: violent and disruptive students inhibiting the education of other children. The teacher told the Champaign Republican she wanted to quit her job. "She said she was tired of dealing with trouble-making kids," says Winkel. "I started wondering whether she was teaching my child or spending her time dealing with a couple of disruptive students."
The revelation led the freshman lawmaker to revive legislation creating "alternative" schools for trouble-making students. The measure, which Gov. Jim Edgar signed in August, allows students who otherwise would be suspended or expelled for bringing drugs or weapons to school to attend an alternative school.
Despite overwhelming support for the idea, state lawmakers failed to budget the necessary funds. Winkel says it's now up to community leaders to show lawmakers that such schools are needed.
Under the bill, regional superintendents are required to hold hearings before the end of the year. Supporters hope the hearings will create enough support to persuade state officials to provide the funds.
An alternative school for 60 to 80 kids would cost $450,000 a year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Winkel proposed earmarking an amount equal to 1 percent of state funding for regular schools for the new program, but legislative leaders forced him to scale back. He's now proposing about $8 million to establish 20 alternative schools in areas where there are none.
Teacher surveys and crime statistics suggest something needs to be done. A 1994 survey by the Illinois Federation of Teachers determined that 29 percent of the 5,000 teachers queried had considered transferring to another school because of violent or disruptive students. Another 29 percent said they were considering quitting. Moreover, the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents released a study earlier this year that suggests drugs, weapons, assaults and gang activity in Illinois schools have exploded since the late 1980s. Suspensions for drug activity dropped from 529 in 1989 to 418 in 1992, when the association first surveyed 223 school districts outside of Cook County. But in a follow-up survey, drug suspensions in 1994 jumped to 537.
Meanwhile, weapons-related incidents climbed from 78 in 1989 to 341 in 1994; gang-related suspensions jumped from 52 to 453; and assaults increased a whopping 271 percent, from 1,573 to 5,840. The increase can be attributed in part to closer monitoring, but administrators say there is no doubt such problems are on the rise.
"If a 12-year-old kid brings a gun to school, what are you going to do? Throw him out on the street?" says Nicole Storch, a member of the Champaign Unit 4 School Board.
Many large cities already operate alternative schools. And the chief executive for Chicago schools, Paul Vallas, recently announced a plan to create 12 alternative schools in the state's largest district. But critics question whether the state can afford to create a new system of schools when it hasn't met its financial obligation to regular schools. Some also fear alternative schools could become warehouses. Proponents, though, say the state can't afford to continue allowing disruptive students to sit in regular classrooms.
"This is the number one topic for parents with kids in school," says state Appellate Judge Robert Steigmann of Urbana. "Children have to attend school, but when they return home at 3 o'clock, they should be no worse off for being there."
Michael Hawthorne is Statehouse bureau chief of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.
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