Public School Funding

by Lucy Klocksin - Golden Apple Fellow

The inequities in school funding in Illinois have haunted me for years. I taught for several years on the north shore and also sent my own children to these well funded schools.  For the past 15 years I have taught in the Chicago Public Schools.  The differences in what the children of the poor and children of the wealthy are offered in their schools makes me shudder.

All schools are held to the same standards but are expected to meet those standards with dramatically different resources available to them. People are forever explaining to me that “throwing more money at city schools isn’t going to improve them.” No one from a poorly funded school has EVER told me that more money wouldn’t help their school. 80% of students in my city school come from low income homes while my old school in the suburbs had no low income students.  More than a third of my current students are Limited English Proficient (LEP) while my old school had an LEP population of about 1%. Still the school that doesn’t have poor or LEP children gets about $10,000 per child per year more money to teach those children.

Illinois legislation needs to be altered dramatically and new ways of funding schools have to be found.  While this problem exists in virtually every state, Illinois’ funding inequities are the worst in the nation. Not surprisingly, we also have an achievement gap second to none.  While the average state picks up 50% of school expenses, our state pays about 30% (Metropolitan Planning Council, 2006).

It’s no secret that children in well funded schools do better than children in poor schools. That doesn’t happen because those children are all smarter!  Well funded schools can attract the best teachers, buy the best equipment, build state of the art buildings and do whatever is needed to help children learn to their fullest potential. I’m glad I got the best for my children but I won’t rest easy until the good education my children got is standard for everybody’s children. 

I haven’t done a lot of ranting about school funding recently but I heard some sad news this week that got me thinking.  Sharon Voliva died this week. She began fighting for more equitable school funding decades ago, when her children were small. She probably fought that battle harder and longer than anyone in our state.  She organized statewide rallies, she talked with legislators, `she started a wonderful organization called Better Funding for Better Schools. She dedicated her life to this cause. Now her grandchildren feel the bite of inequitably funded schools in Illinois. Without Sharon’s selfless determination and wisdom I wonder if this problem ever will be resolved.  Is anyone else out there as angry as I am or is there something I am missing that makes it okay to treat children so unfairly?

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