BRIEFLY

Edited by Donald Sevener

SLICING THE BREAD

More dough (and rules) for schools

Lawmakers are still arguing — no doubt they will be long into the campaign season — over whether they gave schools the full loaf or just half when they passed last month's special session education funding bill. Either way, it's a lot of bread and a bushelful of teaching reforms.

More than $500 million will go to the state's poorest schools over the next several years, thanks to increased taxes on cigarettes, telephone calls and riverboat casinos. That money is guaranteed through the year 2001, even if projected revenues fall through — a seismic shift in school finance in Illinois. Another $1.5 billion will fund school construction and repairs, and $60 million will help fund technology improvements.

"This is the most significant piece of legislation dealing with education in 30 years," Gov. Jim Edgar said after the bill passed the House 83-31 on December 2. This same bill fell four House votes shy of the 71 needed during the fall veto session. Edgar called a special session after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other city leaders promised to pressure some Chicago Democrats to switch their votes. The bill was a compromise reached by Edgar and the four leaders.

Specifically, it gives all schools at least $4,225 to spend per student. For the 1999-2000 school year, the foundation level rises to $4,325; for the 2000- 2001 school year, $4,425. Among its other provisions:

• A $60 million revolving technology loan program for schools needing to upgrade computers and technology networks.

In its first year, fiscal year 1999, grades K-4 will have first crack at $30 million in loans. Twenty million will be pumped into the program the next year and $10 million the third year. By then, with repayments coming in, the program should be supporting itself. The state's wealthiest schools aren't eligible.

• A $1.5 billion capital program for school construction and repairs. Local school districts will have to kick in matching funds — anywhere from 35 percent to 75 percent, based on the school's financial ability. Districts that passed referendums for construction between January 1996 and December 1997 will get a one-time grant: 10 percent of what they would have received from the state. Officials estimate the grants will total somewhere between $35 to $40 million.

• Teachers can be tenured in four years, not two. They will also be given an initial certificate for their first four years, not the current standard certificate. If after four years they pass evaluations, then they will get the standard certificate.

• Teachers who meet national standards can receive a special teaching certificate good for seven years.

• Notification before teachers can strike is doubled to 10 days.

• The amount of time schools have to give teachers before laying them off is reduced from 60 to 45 days before the end of the school year.

• The state board of education is directed to set up an alternative route to teacher certification for working professionals. While the board has latitude in setting the program's specifics, the bill says it must include: an intensive course of study in educational theory and teaching methods; a one-year, full-time internship with a mentor teacher; and a "comprehensive assessment" and recommendation by school officials.

The program would be available to anyone with a bachelor's degree and five years work experience in a related field.

The state board will also set up a similar alternative certification route for administrators.

• By September 1, school districts must have a policy in place for promoting students to the next grade. And instead of being discouraged from promoting students because of their age or "other social reasons," schools are now forbidden to do so.

• A new "No pass, no play" policy takes effect beginning this coming school year for grades 9-12.Students must make certain grades in every course to participate in school sports or extracurricular events.

• School districts can now hire professional nurses. Before, the school nurse had to be certified by the state board.

• After their current multiyear contracts run out, superintendents will get either one-year contracts or maximum five-year performance-based contracts. Principals and other administrators have the same contract deal.

• Administrative expenses cannot exceed a school's instructional expenses except for those schools the state board exempts. And, by this October 15, schools must detail the district's administrative and instructional expenses to the state board.

• A five-member education funding advisory board was created to recommend foundation levels for school years after 2000-2001.

• The state board, in consultation with the state teacher certification board, will set teaching standards and approve and evaluate teacher and administrator preparation programs.

Jennifer Davis

8 / January 1998 Illinois Issues

WEB SITE OF THE MONTH

Hit the Internet, investigate Congress

Care to know how your representative in Congress voted on federal aid to schools? Want to check out what Congress is doing about Medicare benefits? Need to find out when and where a congressional hearing will take place? Wish to read the Declaration of Independence online?

Link up to the World Wide Web and head for THOMAS, arguably the most useful site for information in cyberspace about Congress and its members. Located at http: //thomas.loc.gov/, THOMAS (in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson) provides access to a variety of information about congressional activities, legislation and even historical documents. You can review major legislation considered by Congress, get the complete text of bills back to 1993 or bill summaries and status dating back to 1973. The databases are searchable by bill number, key word, status, sponsor or committee.

Also available is the full text of the daily Congressional Record, which is searchable by keyword, date and by member of Congress, that brings up the debate or speech when your representative spoke on a particular subject or bill. THOMAS has information on committee action and links to House and Senate directories, the Library of Congress and various congressional agencies, including the Congressional Budget Office and General Accounting Office.

THOMAS is the place to start, but if you wish to continue your search with publications that make it a habit to watch over Congress, here are a few additional sites to explore:

Roll Call Online, which calls itself "the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955," is located at http: //www.rollcall.com. It includes "news scoops" (Roll Call notes it broke the House bank scandal), the "lowdown" on every congressional election, commentary from noted columnists as well as classified ads, and more.

The Hill, located at http: //www.hillnews.com, says its mission is to "respect the institution, but scrutinize its members and policies." The Hill reports and analyzes congressional actions, but also covers the legislative branch like a small city, reporting on "its culture, social life, crime, employment, traffic, education, discrimination, shopping, dining, travel and recreation."

CQ, at http: //www.cq.com, is the online site of the respected Congressional Quarterly journal. Some offerings are on a subscription basis, but there are several links to news and opinions about Congress as well as interactive opportunities to find out whether your representative is "On the Job" (information on votes, speeches, sponsorship of legislation), and to "Rate Your Rep" by comparing your views to those of your congressional representative on 10 issues (see box). All the info you need without the expense of a fund-raising dinner.

Donald Sevener

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Federal lawmakers on road to Washington

Congressional leaders will rev up their fall campaigns later this month as they head into the 1998 session. But they'll need to take a detour around partisanship if they hope to jump-start some issues that stalled before last November's adjournment.

So far, the 105th Congress has failed to act on several matters of interest to Illinoisans, including the politically charged subject of campaign finance reform and the high-stakes rewrite of the federal highway program.

Lawmakers put the transportation funding bill on hold, but gave themselves a six-month deadline to resolve differences over the total dollars available to build and repair the nation's roads and bridges and the formula for distributing those dollars to the states. The six-year program, enacted in 1991, was to expire September 30.

The delay in reauthorization sets back repairs slated for the crumbling Stevenson Expressway in Chicago, according to state transportation officials.

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Rating Congress CQ's "Rate Your Rep" asks you to vote on 10 issues (Social Security, a balanced budget amendment, chemical weapons treaty, and such), then compares your votes to a member of Congress of your choice. Question four asks: Do you agree the Senate should authorize $4.35 million for the Government Affairs Committee's investigation into alleged illegal and improper activities involving the 1996 congressional and presidential election campaigns? I said no; Sen. Richard Durbin said yes. Overall, I agreed with Durbin's votes 66 percent of the time (actually higher, because I misunderstood one of the questions). That consensus was significantly higher than with the other 83 persons who had compared their views with Durbin's as of early December. According to CQ, the majority of other visitors agreed with Illinois' junior senator only 22 percent of the time (and with me 40 percent of the time). Tune in; it's your chance to vote without spending all the money to get elected to Congress. DS

Illinois Issues January 1998 / 9

BRIEFLY

Road.. .continued from page 9

Another $ 150-$ 170 million earmarked for other projects will be deferred. Still, Illinois might end up benefiting from the protracted negotiations. "In the short term, it's going to be painful," says state transportation spokesman Richard Adorjan, "but the long-term strategy is for increased transportation spending."

Members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, including five members from Illinois, plan to look at new federal budget figures in February. Extra dollars could be found to increase the transportation budget over the next six years. Meanwhile, state officials are also optimistic about Illinois' potential share of the pot. Since its enactment, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act has made Illinois a winner (see Illinois Issues, September, page 14). Over the past six years, the state has received an estimated $1.13 back for every dollar it sent to Washington for transportation. But a coalition of other states argue they've been shorted. In the Senate- drafted proposal, Illinois' share would decline. But Illinois could fare better than it does now in the House-drafted version. "It's safe to say there will be a revision," says Dick Smith, who tracks federal legislation for the state department. But, he adds, after the two chambers work out differences, Illinois could end up doing as well as before.

As important, he says, is the deliberation over discretionary dollars for bridge projects and interstate reconstruction. Smith says both measures authorize the discretionary programs, but neither chamber provided sufficient dollars. "Illinois would compete very well if the discretionary programs are adequately funded."

Supporters of campaign finance reform, meanwhile, have less cause for optimism. A proposal to ban unregulated "soft money" (see February, page 32) foundered amid partisan squabbling over fund-raising practices in the last presidential election. The proposal would have prohibited donations for so-called "party-building activities." Those who back federal campaign reform say they'll try again this year. But it will be tougher to sell the idea to lawmakers while they're rounding up dollars for their re-election campaigns.

Congress failed to approve other proposals Illinois Issues watched over the past year:

• A bill to help rebuild elementary and secondary schools (see March, page 24). Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, it would have allocated $5 billion to pay a portion of the interest on state and local bond issues used for repair, renovation, modernization and construction. Moseley-Braun did get a provision through that authorizes cash-strapped schools to issue tax-free bonds for repairs.

• A $368.5 billion agreement between the giant tobacco companies and 40 state attorneys general, including Illinois (see October, page 21). The goal is to reduce smoking among young people and recover states' costs in treating sick smokers. Illinois could get up to $6 billion, but Congress would have to ratify the agreement. Negotiations are expected to resume when the session gets underway.

• A plan to require the states to deregulate electric utilities (see January, page 20). Illinois and several other large states, fearful of the potential for federal legislation, began moving toward deregulation on their own.

• An overhaul of the federal government's housing program for low- income people (see November, page 20). The disagreement between the two chambers is over the best mix of income levels in public housing and provisions for lower-income residents who might get bumped from public housing if more working families move in. But Linda Couch of the National Low Income Housing Coalition says she expects the House, the Senate and the Clinton Administration to try this spring to work out an agreement.

Perhaps, but as the campaign season hits high gear, the ambitious congressional agenda may hit yet another dead end. Peggy Boyer Long

10 / January 1998 Illinois Issues

THESE SHOES AIN'T MADE FOR WALKIN'

Social workers try welfare; local government officials next in line

Jeri Marxman called it a "walk in my shoes kind of exercise." But these weren't just any old shoes, though they no doubt would be old. And tattered. Scuffed up, holes- in-the-soles kinds of shoes. They were the shoes, metaphorically speaking, of welfare recipients, and a couple hundred human service workers got a chance to walk the walk at seminars sponsored by the Cooperative Extension Service last fall.

Come spring, local government officials will get to explore issues that affect funding of services. Policy sessions sponsored by the extension service will focus on strategies for local food supplies for poor people, education for welfare recipients and labor shortages or surpluses.

The seminars follow up on those conducted last fall for social workers. "It really hit home because now you really know what they feel like," said Cassie Laird of Tri-County Counseling Center in Jerseyville. Wilbon Anthony, an education coordinator from East St. Louis, discovered how difficult it can be to have children with you every waking moment. "This changes your viewpoint," Anthony said.

The seminars, entitled "Living in the State of Welfare," were held in seven locations — Sesser, Silvis, Springfield, Rockford, Chicago, Champaign and Effingham — and were designed to expose participants to life on welfare in urban and rural settings. Participants chose from a variety of family situations and tried to live on welfare for a week. Their goal was to keep a roof over their head, keep the family fed and pay bills within income guidelines.

Anthony played roles as welfare recipient and as service provider, both of which he found trying. He said many people don't understand how difficult it is to make decisions affecting other people's lives. "The more we help people, the more they will follow their basic common values."

Jeri Marxman, a public policy specialist for the Cooperative Extension Service, wasn't so sure. She found that some situations caused people to 'turn to solutions that weren't ethical. "This makes you wonder if some of our morals and ethics are because we can afford them," she said.

"A lot of us got to where we are because we had support from someone. Our next step is to figure out ways to provide community support for people who are struggling." Cindy Ladage

REFORMING WELFARE REFORM

What's it all mean? Social scientists launch major study

No doubt you've heard that welfare as we once knew it has changed. Indeed, you've probably heard about the new welfare-to-work reforms over and over. What you haven't heard — what no one yet knows — is what this really means.

Soon we might.

This fall marks the start of arguably one of the most ambitious studies of the nation's greatest shift in social policy in 60 years. Some 700 welfare and working poor families in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio will be studied for five years by some of the nation's leading experts on inner-city poverty and public policy.

"Will adult recipients be able to find jobs that provide adequate support? Will mothers be able to balance their family lives with their work lives? Will the well- being of their children improve?" These are questions the researchers expect to answer.

"For those who do fine, we want to know what about them enables them to cope — work history, family functioning, social networks, talent, motivation and other factors," explains Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, associate professor at the Irving B. Harris graduate school of public policy studies at the University of Chicago, "For

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Illinois Issues January 1998 / 11

BRIEFLY

Photograph courtesy of Chicago Architecture Foundation

A classic The Great Hall of Chicago's Union Station stands as one of the remaining symbols of the grandiose terminals built to serve passengers traveling by rail. Opened in 1925, it was one of the last of the so-called "union stations" built over the previous 40 years by united railroad companies. Designed to symbolize Chicago's status as the nation's center of transportation, the $75 million terminal funded by four railroads covered two city blocks and offered passengers a "city within a city" with restaurant, barber shop, drug store and shoe shine stand. However, "the dreams for Chicago Union Station never materialized," says photographer Mike Fitelson, "as it was obsolete before it opened. Even in its heyday, it was never fully utilized, serving only five of the city's one-time high of 24 passenger railroads." But that does not diminish appreciation for the classical architecture of the Great Hall, thanks to restoration efforts in the '80s. "Here the grand columns and stately staircases conjure smoky reminiscence of the Roaring Twenties and passengers basking in luxury during a pause in their cross-country journey," says Fitelson. His photographic exhibition showcasing Union Station will be presented at the Chicago Architecture Foundation from January 6 through January 31. Beverley Scobell

Tollway authority under judicial review

While the state's tollway system averted a shutdown last month, the Illinois Supreme Court has yet to rule on the larger question plaguing the Illinois Toll Highway Authority.

Can the authority, which has operated independently for 44 years, legally do so, or should it, as a state government agency, have its budget appropriated by the legislature?

Cook County Circuit Judge Stephen Schiller decided it was the latter this summer and gave the authority and the legislature a December 15 deadline. After that, the tollway would have had no way to pay its bills. The authority, which operates 274 miles of toll roads on a budget of more than $320 million, appealed to the high court, which issued a stay on Schiller's order on November 25.

Lawmakers' attempts to act during the fall veto session failed. A proposal to bypass the legislative appropriation process by making the authority a unit of local government was one vote shy of clearing a Senate committee. Another measure to strictly regulate the authority also died.

As of press time, the Supreme Court had yet to issue its final ruling.

Jennifer Daw

Payback time

The state's first charter school, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, is beginning to reap rewards from its alums.

With only nine graduating classes under its belt, this high school designed for some of the state's brightest students has received a gift of $500, 000, the largest donation from an alumnus, and one of the largest private gifts in IMSA's history. "IMSA has contributed greatly to my success and this gift is made to contribute back to IMSA's success," said the former student, who asked to remain anonymous.

The gift will be used to establish a permanent endowment that will support IMSA programs. Beverley Scobell

Reforming Welfare Reform... continued from page 11 those who need more help to find jobs, we can help policy-makers understand what they need in the way of investment and support. And for those who face too many challenges to function under this system — who have disabled children or poor education or emotional problems — it should help us understand whether these are people who should be exempted from time limits and what type of safety net should be in place for them."

Chase-Lansdale will be working with experts such as Harvard professor William Julius Wilson, consultant to Congress and President Clinton and author of The Truly Disadvantaged and When Work Disappears.

The target cities — Boston, Chicago and San Antonio — are in states with a wide range of welfare reforms. Massachusetts, for example, has one of the shortest time limits nationwide: two years of help in any five-year period. Texas has set three time limits — 12, 24 or 36 months — depending on welfare recipients' job readiness. And Illinois has adopted the federal guidelines: two years to find work; five years of help, total.

This $16 million project is being funded by a number of foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Jennifer Daw

12 / January 1998 Illinois Issues

PRESSBOX
AP finds illegal child labor is widespread;
Midwest farmers lake rap for Gulf pollution

Thousands of children — some as young as preschoolers — work illegally in farms and factories across the country, including Illinois, a five-month investigation by the Associated Press has revealed.

The AP commissioned a study that estimates nearly 300, 000 youngsters, two-thirds of them under 15, work in violation of child labor laws. AP reporters found 165 kids working illegally in 16 states, from New Mexico chili fields to New York City sweatshops.

In southern Illinois, reporters Ray Long, Sharon Cohen and Ricardo Reif found underage youngsters working during school hours in an orchard in Anna and a warehouse in Alto Pass. Owners of the operations denied they hired employees under 16.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that fertilizer used to buoy crop yields in Illinois and other upper Midwest states may be responsible for killing aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bill Lambrecht, an occasional contributor to Illinois Issues, reported recently that scientists point to Midwest farmlands as the culprit in creating the "Dead Zone," a large area in the waters off Louisiana that cannot sustain fish and other aquatic life. Researchers blame the runoff of nitrogen chemicals used to fertilize corn and soybean fields for contributing to the condition of "hypoxia," which results when the chemicals produce algae blooms that die and use up oxygen in the water.

Though the problem of hypoxia occurs worldwide, the White House Office of Science and Technology plans to study the problem off the Gulf coast, both from a scientific and an economic standpoint, Lambrecht reported.

The October 1997 Atlantic Monthly asked whether American schools are really as bad as reformers want us to believe. Though acknowledging some severe problems and the need for stronger standards of performance for both students and teachers, Peter Schrag concluded that criticism of public schools fails to account for significant strides made in public education, for nuances in testing data and for the difficulty of making cross- cultural or historical comparisons.

Relying heavily on a federal study, Schrag noted in "The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools," that the picture in American education is "far more complex — and in many respects a great deal less gloomy — than the rhetoric of alarm allowed."

Though American students lag behind counterparts in other developed countries on international comparisons of achievement, surveys show that American parents remain satisfied with their students' achievement. This led Schrag to question what he called "yet another myth: that Americans — and parents in particular — really do want schools with high academic standards, and would get them if the education establishment didn't stand in their way."

Schrag cautioned against those who "would abandon, through vouchers, privatization and other means, the idea of the common school altogether. Before we do that, we'd better be sure that things are really as bad as we assume. The dumbest thing we could do is scrap what we're doing right."

Donald Sevener

WHO SAYS VOTERS DON'T HAVE A CHOICE? Last month, 1, 095 individuals declared their intentions to run for public office in the March 17 primary, many of them unknowns or third party candidates. But, as Illinois Issues went to press, opponents were challenging some of those candidacies. Still, by November, voters will decide on all state constitutional officers, 118 state representatives and 40 state senators. They'll also vote for a U.S. senator and three congressmen running for open seats.

Illinois Issues January 1998 / 13