POLITICS
Illinois lawmakers merit an 'F' for their work on education by Charles N. Wheeler III The DuPage County duo played roles familiar to every teacher. Like the class clown. Lee Daniels sought to distract. Like the playground bully, Pate Philip refused to allow a vote. From East Dubuque to Brookport, youngsters across Illinois are putting away their schoolbooks and getting ready for summer vacation. Report cards are on their way home, offering a final word on how successful the 1996- 97 school year has been for the young scholars. June 1 also brought the end of the spring legislative session and, given the legislature's abiding interest in school accountability, it's only fitting that lawmakers, too, be graded for their work, embarrassing as the result may be. And embarrassing it is. Lawmakers clearly merit no more than an F if one uses what almost everyone agreed was the paramount task facing the legislature: changing the way Illinois pays for elementary and secondary education. Yet not all lawmakers need to be shamefaced at the pathetic performance. Just as one or two disruptive pupils can harm classmates' efforts in real classrooms, so, too, the responsibility for the legislature's miserable failure rests squarely on its Republican leadership: House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels of Elmhurst and Senate President James "Pate" Philip of Wood Dale. In blocking the best chance in decades for fundamental reform, the DuPage County duo played roles familiar to every teacher. Like the class clown, Daniels sought to distract attention in the House by proposing a cockamamie "plan" combining a mismash of minor tax increases (including, for one thankfully brief moment, a new tax on X-rated videos and magazines) with bloated revenue estimates, payment delays and other hoary ways to cook the state's books. Still, despite the antics of Daniels and his minions, the House approved landmark school finance reforms with the help of seven courageous Republicans — six downstaters and one suburbanite — who refused to play their leader's game. In the Senate, however, Philip became the playground bully, refusing to allow a vote on the plan, even though — or because — most senators favored it. In real schools, kids who act that way earn a "behaviorally disordered" label and a visit with the school psychologist, who tries to figure out what makes them tick. In this case, the motivation seems obvious: The GOP leaders believe the near lockstep opposition of their troops to the tax hike bankrolling the reform plan will translate into partisan gains in next year's legislative elections. You can almost hear the tag line of the 30-second spot: "We stood against the largest tax increase in state history." Less convinced are Gov. Jim Edgar and Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, the unlikely allies who deserve A's for their joint efforts for school reform. Instead, the governor and the speaker foresee potentially damaging fallout for GOP lawmakers who opposed the proposal, particularly downstaters. Aides to the governor calculate that 43 of 58 House GOP districts would have been winners under the plan trashed by Daniels and tubed by Philip. Madigan suggests voter wrath at Republicans who reneged on campaign promises to reform school funding could shift Senate control to the Democrats. The 30-second spots they envision ask a simple question: "Why did you vote for DuPage County political bosses and against our schoolchildren?" Dueling spin doctors aside, there is no denying that the Edgar-Madigan plan would have changed dramatically the way Illinois funds its local schools. The ill-starred proposal's two major thrusts — shifting the costs of elementary and secondary education away from local real estate taxes and boosting spending levels for poor school districts — reflected recommendations made last year by a commission headed by former University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry. (Ironically, Daniels and Philip promised to make school funding a top priority this year after summarily dismissing the panel's ideas a year ago. Of course, one shouldn't be surprised when disruptive pupils don't keep their promises to try harder the next time.) To pay for these changes, the plan 42 / June 1997 Illinois Issues Perhaps Illinoisans will vote for anyone who's against an income tax increase. Or perhaps they prefer using existing revenues. Or perhaps they simply don't care about disparity in school spending.. would have increased individual income tax rates to 3.75 percent from 3 percent, a 25 percent hike. The higher rate would have generated an estimated $1.5 billion, $900 million to replace revenues schools would lose under the bill's 28 percent cut in homeowners' school property taxes, and $614 million to guarantee all school districts have per-pupil resources of at least $4,200 next school year and $4,500 by 2000. Moreover, the plan would have strengthened teacher certification standards, doubling to four years the time needed for beginning teachers to earn tenure and requiring veteran teachers to meet tougher standards to renew their certificates. Perhaps Daniels and Philip are correct. Perhaps Illinoisans are knee-jerk voters who'll mark for anyone who's against an income tax increase, no matter how solid the case for its enactment Or perhaps most Illinoisans would prefer the GOP leaders' approach of using existing revenues with a tuck here and a trim there. After all, that's the way we've been doing it for years, isn't it? Of course, that's also the reason the state's share of K-12 funding has declined to less than a third from almost a half. Or perhaps, most troubling of all, most Illinoisans simply don't care that the current heavy reliance on property taxes has led to huge disparities in resources available for local schools, with some 700,000 youngsters in districts that can't even afford the minimum level experts say is needed for an adequate education. Yet public opinion polls consistently show most respondents favor more state spending for schools and a property-for-income tax swap. With school now out for the legislature, like-minded voters should remember who killed school reform when they do their own grading at the polls next year. Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Illinois Issues June 1997 / 43
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