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YOUR TURN

Illinois teachers
back the 'Education Party'

by Bob Haisman

'We members of the education lobby have our eyes on the prize. We know that the politics of inclusion represent our only hope for success.'

How would you react if you were attending a party and, at the event's culmination, the shining moment when the guest of honor is supposed to bask in glory, he started bad-mouthing you, along with your organization and all of its members?

What I mostly experienced was bewilderment as I sat in a San Diego arena and listened to Republican Bob Dole bash teachers while accepting his party's nomination for president. I couldn't understand why he would deliberately alienate millions of voters by launching an unfounded attack on teachers, education support workers and their union.

Over the next few days, as the firestorm over Dole's remarks mounted, the reaction from Republicans at the local level became clear: They were distancing themselves from Dole's attack on education.

Most Illinois Republicans know that education unions have changed. We members of the education lobby have our eyes on the prize. We know that the politics of inclusion represent our only hope for success. That's why the Illinois School Funding Initiative (ISFI) was formed.

The ISFI is a coalition that includes the Illinois Education Association (IEA), the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance and the Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Our goal is fair funding for all Illinois school children.

You don't have to teach mathematics to be able to count votes. Despite the stereotype of teacher unions as wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party, IEA consistently has pledged allegiance only to one party: the "Education Party."

The candidates and officeholders who support public education, regardless of their political party affiliation, become members of our Education Party. It all depends on how candidates "measure up" on today's education issues. If a candidate supports public education, children and school employees, we recommend that candidate to our members.

In November, the Education Party emerged as the majority party in the Illinois legislature. Going into the election, the lEA's political action committee recommended candidates, and incumbents who weren't up for election, including 14 Republicans and 31 Democrats for the Illinois Senate and 37 Republicans and 57 Democrats for the House. When the votes were counted, 41 of the state's 59 senators (14 Republicans and 27 Democrats) and 88 of the 118 members of the House (53 Democrats and 35 Republicans) were Education Party members.

Members of the education lobby and elected officials no longer can hope to be bailed out by the court system. In October, the state Supreme Court officially placed the school funding ball in the court of the Illinois House and Senate, stating that objections to the current school funding scheme in Illinois "must be presented to the General Assembly."

So, once again, the case for funding reform will be presented to the legislature. The facts on school funding long have been compelling:

• Illinois ranks 46th in its commitment to public education. Despite a Constitution that reads: The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education, just 32 percent of the total cost of education is provided by the state, with property taxes providing nearly 59 percent of the cost.

• Over-reliance on the property tax has created a patently unfair situation, which these figures from the 1994-95 school year illustrate: While St. Rose School District 14-15 in Clinton County could only afford to spend $2,932 per student, Rondout School District 72 in Lake County spent $15,744 on each pupil. Does anyone believe that children in these two districts received comparable educational experiences?

In 1996, it was again proven that, in Illinois, stereotypes about political involvement by teacher unions simply are inaccurate.

In 1997, the members of the Illinois School Funding Initiative will test the accuracy of another widely held stereotype: the widespread belief that the members of the Illinois General Assembly lack the political courage needed to fix a broken school funding system.

We expect the legislature to prove that stereotype wrong. We expect a majority of both houses to do the right thing for the children of Illinois. It's going to be an interesting spring.

Bob Haisman is president of the 90,000- member Illinois Education Association and is a resident of Oak Park.

34 / December 1996 Illinois Issues