CONVERSATION WITH THE PUBLISHER

With most issues, funding
is not the same thing as reform

by Ed Wojcicki

During last year's discussion about education funding, a lobbyist friend quietly and politely lectured me. The real issue, he said, was not education funding, but education reform. He believed the public debate should have been about reforming the entire educational system to produce the best possible education for every child. But he lamented that many people defined the issue more narrowly, so that any position against more money for schools became equated with opposition to progress.

I was told I became part of the problem when I asked in a Question of the Month last June whether the General Assembly had done enough on the "education funding issue."

He had a point. It helped me understand the importance of controlling the language in any political debate. Funding was important. So were other issues. But those advocating more funding for schools successfully seized this debate.

I thought of this again as I read reader responses to my invitation to advise this year's statewide and legislative candidates on what you want to hear in their campaigns. You mentioned at least 20 issues. At the top of your list was education reform, including funding. So even though the legislature did finally approve an education package late last year, it seems likely that candidates will continue to be peppered with education reform questions all year. There is still plenty of grumbling that the education issue, define it how you will, still needs considerable attention.

Several readers also raised the topic of campaign finance. "I want to hear who's funding their campaign," a Chicago woman wrote. "How much from corporations, unions and PACs? How much from individuals? How much in small donations, and how much from the Four Tops?" If enough voters ask these questions, candidates could become nervous, because in the most expensive races, they would have to admit money is pouring in from outside their districts.

Still other readers raised thoughtful questions about funding of the state's mass transportation and highway programs, and one sought help for "nonrural Illinois municipalities" for operating expenses and capital improvements. And a few readers mentioned Illinois' vast natural resources and expressed concern about protecting the environment.

I was surprised nobody mentioned the nastiness of several recent legislative campaigns. Issues are important, and so is the way Illinois candidates behave. Here's one more plea for fewer distortions and outright fiction in '98 campaign literature.

Illinois Issues February 1998 / 3