Legislative olympiad: fiscal reality v. political fantasy

Even before the Olympic flame had burned its last over the Canadian prairie a few weeks ago, the United States was engulfed in an epidemic of national soul-searching produced by what many armchair athletes viewed as this nation's lackluster performance in the XV Winter Olympiad. Pundits probed our collective pysche, coming up with reasons ranging from too few speed-skating ovals to too many couch potatoes to explain why our athletes collected only six medals, the worst U.S. showing in 52 years. U.S. Olympic leaders went so far as to tap New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner to make Team USA a winner in the future.

Ironically, the pageantry of the closing ceremonies in Calgary overshadowed a report issued a few hours earlier in Washington which documented a poor showing by this nation's youth in another international competition. The venue was science knowledge, arguably more important to the country's future than bobsledding or the biathlon, and the results were disheartening. U.S. fifth-graders placed 8th among 15 nations participating in the testing, and that was the bright spot. U.S. ninth-graders were 15th of 17 nations, while high school students placed dead last.

So far, the American public seems to have taken this news in stride, and if some scientific genius has been charged with closing the brain gap, it hasn't made headlines. But then no TV network paid millions for the rights to the story. The contrast suggests a case of misplaced priorities, if our national pride is more easily offended when we're outclassed at athletics than when we're beaten in academics.

A similar challenge faces Illinoisans in the next few months as the General Assembly ponders the budget choices presented by Gov. James R. Thompson: a modest income tax increase or the status-quo spending plan he unveiled in March.

Some have suggested the state can have its cake and eat it, too, boosting spending for favorite programs above the governor's recommendations without providing additional revenue. That option, of course, is precisely what got the state in its current fix; sooner or later, fiscal reality intrudes upon political fantasy.

Those wishing to make responsible judgments about the adequacy of Thompson's maintenance budget would do well to recall the oft-cited truism that a society's greatness is measured by how it cares for its least powerful members: those in the dawn of life, those in the twilight of life, and those dwelling in life's shadows.

Applying that standard puts the focus on education and human services, where compelling needs would seem to make it difficult for any legislator or concerned voter to feel satisfied with the level of services being provided.

Take early childhood education, for example, a program designed to identify and help three- and four-year-olds who are at risk of academic failure, often because they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Such efforts are especially significant in Illinois, where almost one-third of public school students come from low-income families. An estimated 112,000 children could use such help; this school year, however, there are dollars enough to serve only about 6,700. "That's not only wrong and short-sighted, it is immoral and we will pay a heavy price for that," Thompson told legislators.

The early childhood initiative is but one of the 1985 education reforms that's languishing for want of funds; in fact, should the legislature accept the governor's recommendations and hold education spending steady in fiscal 1989. it would mean about a $20 million cut for elementary and

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secondary education programs because of increased pension costs.

Or consider services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, deemed wanting to the tune of some $300 million last year by the governor's own task force. Thompson's budget proposes a $36 million increase for the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Department, intended to keep up existing inadequate staffing ratios at 21 state institutions in hopes of avoiding federal decertification and the loss of Medicaid reimbursement. But there's no new money for the 425 community-based agencies serving some 150,000 mentally ill persons and about 30,000 developmentally disabled individuals, effectively cutting the services that can be provided. "We invite censure and shame from a compassionate people who sent us here," the governor said of his mental health budget. Not to mention lawsuits from an advocacy group for the mentally retarded seeking better care for some 8,000 people at an estimated cost of more than $220 million a year.

And what about the folks state Aging Director Janet S. Otwell calls "the last group of vulnerable people in society that we do nothing for," abused senior citizens? results of a three-year pilot program on elderly abuse and neglect were "surprising and dismaying," according to an agency report: more than 640 reports of abuse and neglect, about 80 percent of them substantiated. But there's no money in the proposed budget to set up a statewide reporting and intervention program to help these frail victims; in fact, lawmakers underfunded an existing tax relief program for seniors by some $25 million this year, leaving thousands of elderly taxpayers awaiting refund checks.

There are other examples, of course, many of them documented in an alternative State of the State report issued by the League of Women Voters of Illinois and the Chicago Urban League detailing a decline in the quality and availability of basic human services. Warned Mary Ellen Barry, the League of Women Voters state president: "We are in danger of becoming a state which no longer seems to care about the sick, the poor, the young and the elderly."

Should that become Illinois' sorry record, not even all the gold medals of Calgary could hide our shame.□

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