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LETTERS
Harold Henderson's essay, "Danger zone" (Illinois Issues, December 1995, page 10), suggests that weakening the Endangered Species Act is the only way to save threatened species. But in Will County a public/private venture was approved that demonstrates a viable alternative for protecting at least one endangered species: the spotted turtle. Land and Lakes Co. (a multifaceted environmental services company), Vulcan Materials Inc. (a national limestone quarry company), the Will County Forest Preserve District and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority worked together to get final permit approval to create a habitat area in the Keepataw Preserve to foster a population of the spotted turtle. The effort began in the fall of 1994 when plans for extension of Route 355 were announced at hearings. The new highway would cut through the preserve — a forest district property just east of Land and Lakes property — shading about nine acres under approaches to a new bridge over the Des Plaines River. To compensate the district for the loss of this land, the state planned to condemn a 20-acre portion of the Lemont Quarry for forest preserve use. Amid protests against the loss of high-paying quarry mining jobs, the cost of condemning the quarry versus alternative undeveloped sites and the potential loss of a nearby source of limestone for the highway's construction, Land and Lakes, Vulcan and the district worked out a solution to recommend to the highway authorities. The result is a joint proposal to create a habitat area and provide for bike paths and pedestrian access along the north bank of the Des Plaines River. Under the proposal, approved in December, Land and Lakes will donate permanent easements through its property for creation of the bike paths, and Vulcan will landscape the borders of its operations to screen the paths. Land and Lakes Co. and Vulcan are enlisting their hydrologists, ecological biologists and civil engineering staffs to provide a moist habitat for the rare turtle. The Will County district will introduce the turtles to the habitat, and its biologists will monitor the turtle population. We at Land and Lakes believe everyone has an interest in the preservation of threatened species. We also believe many alternatives to the Endangered Species Act are available to protect those species.
Mary Margaret Cowhey
In his article on third parties (Illinois Issues, January 1996, page 26), James L. Merriner chose only to discuss two types of third parties: parties that have served as vehicles to fulfill the desire for self-aggrandizement of charismatic personalities, and parties that were launched by members of a faction of an established party after losing a battle for dominance. He did not mention parties that reflect a distinct ideology. Specifically, he did not mention the Libertarian Party, which 38 * March 1996 Illinois Issues has appeared on the Illinois ballot for over 20 years and will be on the ballot in the fall of 1996. The party graduated from being a "new" party to being an "established" party after the November 1994 election. This March, voters may even vote in the first Libertarian primary election, in which two candidates are vying for president and two candidates are vying for U.S. Senate (I am one of them). The party attempted to place more candidates for federal races on the ballot, but Illinois law prohibits it. As Merriner described, ballot access laws in Illinois are tough. A lawsuit on this issue is in progress. A commentator such as James Merriner would probably characterize the Libertarian Party as one that advocates the "extremes" of "left" and "right": free market economics, civil liberties and lifestyle freedom, and a noninterventionist foreign policy. It is fair for commentators to use the terms "extreme" or "fringe" only if they use the terms equally to characterize groups of all political persuasions who advocate significant change. I believe these terms should be avoided in serious political discourse because they are subjective and because they are frequently used by supporters of the status quo as a form of name-calling.
David F. Hoscheidt
With education,
smaller is better I read and enjoy Illinois Issues each month, and I was happy to see your "smaller is better" piece in the January issue on Chicago Public Schools (see page 10). CPS is making an excellent move in encouraging the "small school movement." There's a larger story about small schools, too. Let me emphasize that our family is enthusiastic about the new leadership in the public schools. Much is already being accomplished. The new CPS management is facing the hard issues from top to bottom. These include educational quality, teacher performance, facilities and the many union issues that for years have made progress almost impossible. It may even be able to "crack" the funding problem by some combination of improvements in efficiency and increased tax support. I believe that by the time our children reach high school age we will be able to feel good about their attending a public school. But now, for all the obvious reasons, we do not feel that way. Most obvious is the importance of education. We cannot afford risking our children's future while the public schools solve the problems of 30 or more years of neglect. So we are part of the small independent schools "movement," if that's the right term. Our 7-year-old attends North Park Elementary, a tiny K-8 school that enrolls about 130 students and uses rented facilities. Our son will enter kindergarten there next year. North Park was started by parents, but it employs trained educators and certified teachers. It is not affiliated with other elementary schools, or religion, or "cause" other than good education. North Park Elementary has excellent supportive relationships with Northeastern Illinois University and North Park College, and this year celebrates its 15th anniversary. Our family income range is moderate. Most families earn between $35,000-$ 100,000, with the same number under $25,000 as over $100,000. School tuition and fees come to about $3,000, or about the same as Catholic schools. All the families are expected to help out in other ways too: lunchroom duty, facilities repairs. We are not exclusive; North Park enrolls anyone who applies. Our only limitation is students with handicaps or learning disabilities, and we take them if their family works with us on a plan to give them the help they need. Our results? Test scores are excellent, in the 91st percentile nationally on the Iowa tests last spring. Our graduates get into the best public or private high schools and go on to fine colleges. Yes, we carry the double burden of taxes and school tuition. It's an enormous strain on our family with only one mid-level income. But we support public education and would strongly oppose any voucher system. Public primary and secondary education must get better, and it won't unless it has the resources to do so. Beyond the education, of course, families find that the school becomes a supportive community and a center for the families who meet there. Community initiatives like ours are grass-roots — so much so that they are rarely noticed. Yet they are an important part of the picture in today's Chicago and today's America.
Skip Landt
Neediest students
get
fewest state dollars It's well documented that Illinois' reliance on property taxes to fund schools has resulted in wide disparities in the amount of money available for education from one district to another. (see Illinois Issues, December 1995, page 31). In Damiansville, for example, the school district spends as little as $2,500 annually per student, while in the Seneca Township High School District expenditures per student run as high as $11,500. Disparities in funding are troubling because they suggest that children around the state do not receive the same quality of education. That suspicion turns into a dark reality when we look at the relationship between funding levels and the school districts where children start school with the fewest advantages. In a recent study, Preserving Privilege: Inequity in the Illinois Education Finance System, the Chicago Urban League compared funding levels in school districts statewide with four factors that correlate with academic success: parental educational levels, educational achievement at early ages, community income levels and racial segregation. The study finds that students with the greatest obstacles to educational achievement receive the fewest funds, and that school funding levels are the greatest for those students who are most likely to succeed. High-income families are often in a Illinois Issues March 1996 * 39 better position to provide computers, books, travel and other education-enhancing experiences. But instead of helping low-income students bridge the education gap created by differences in income levels, Illinois' school funding system reinforces and deepens existing inequities. In high school districts where median incomes exceeded $50,000, per student spending averaged $9,054. That level of funding dropped to $4,642 per student in families earning $30,000 or less. Low-achieving students are similarly disadvantaged by Illinois' funding system, receiving on average approximately $1,000 less per student than students whose reading and math scores are high. The inequalities become exacerbated by longstanding patterns that concentrate both racial minorities and poor students in highly segregated school districts that lack financial resources. If low-income, racially segregated minority children performed as well in school as other children, this would not be a problem. But they do not. The system, however, cannot correct for this problem. Even when the additional money allocated for low-income students through the General State Aid formula is calculated in, minority elementary and high school districts receive considerably less money per pupil than predominantly white districts in the Chicago area. Illinois' over-reliance on property taxes to fund education virtually guarantees that those students most in need receive the fewest education funds. Communities with the greatest educational needs have the least ability to pay taxes and the least property wealth to tax. In Chicago's six-county area, for example, median home values in white school districts were more than twice the median values of districts with large numbers of African-American and Latino students. The first step in changing school funding in Illinois is to increase per child funding levels. At the Chicago Urban League, we have advocated that the state increase state per pupil spending approximately $1,000 in order to provide all students with an adequate base level of funding. But full financing reform must go further. While property wealth should continue as a source of funding, a stable statewide system must tap a range of sources that includes income, property wealth and commercial activity. Only a mix of sources can reduce property tax burdens and provide sufficient funding levels. So far, legislators have not acted on legislation to address this crisis because of election-year politics and the perception that any action related to taxes could cost them their jobs. Concerned citizens interested in changing the way schools are funded in Illinois can help by participating in a Parents' March for School Funding in Springfield on March 17. The march has attracted a wide variety of support, including sponsorship from the Illinois Parents and Teachers Association, the Illinois chapter of the American Association of Retired People and the league. Sooner or later, most educators, parents and even legislators recognize that things must change. Local property taxes cannot go any higher and schools must improve.
James W. Compton
More coverage
for southern Illinois After 25 years in other states, I have returned to Illinois to live. So when I found your publication, I was at once attracted by its information and issues. But at the same time, I was quite disturbed by the coverage and the direction of your publication. There is not a single board member from southern Illinois, and only one article that even mentions any location in the state south of Springfield. The southern one-third of the state is important to Illinois and, I believe, worthy of your attention and coverage.
Donald W. Jugenheimer
Correction
With new prisons going up faster than new Wal-Marts, it certainly seems that Illinois' penitentiary-building bonanza has cost $1.2 trillion, as reported in the February Illinois Issues. Actually, according to the state Capital Development Board, the figure for prison construction, rehabilitation, modernization and such over the past 25 years is $1.2 billion. 40 * March 1996 Illinois Issues |
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Sam S. Manivong, Illinois Periodicals Online Coordinator |