Just as a reminder. Illinois is 50th of the 50 states in the state’s contribution to public education. That’s dead last. Most of the money spent in the public schools comes from local taxes, i.e. property tax and sales tax.
That is true despite wording in the state’s constitution (“the state shall have a primary responsibility for public education”), a state lottery supposedly devoted to education, and several advisory referenda in which the people said that the state should be providing more.
I publish this every so often. Illinois has been last or next to last for years. The state has been sued by districts to provide more funding. Multiple times.
And just imagine the misery inflicted on the childfree singles and couples who are forced to pay for Chicago mis-education while maintaining a life free of children but laden with the costs of their upbringing and burden on society and the global environment, flora and fauna.
I’m a bit annoyed to hear that the teachers at my youngest’s school are on a silent strike where at least the most aggressive teachers are no-shows during after school office hours. I imagine them going to the bathroom after the last class and shimmying through a window and climbing down a pipe to the ground.
My son was told by a teacher about this and explained that since the recession they’ve not received a raise. I wish they’s make their claims public, because I’m almost positive they’ve continually renewed the contract which contained COLAs and steps for experience and education, but my understanding is that the basic agreement has been unchanged for over ten years. But the killer was that the schools now have all of this money from the tax increase.
Now, I’ve voted for every tax increase referendum that the school has sought, but no property tax increase has ever passed and the sales tax increase is required by the state enabling legislation to go to school building improvements. Teachers have apparently learned to apply the principles of the education lobby to their benefit, more money to spend there can be used to spend more money over here.
And for the first time, my real estate assessment went down (by less than a dollar). The median home price here is about $120k, and it usually goes up about one percent per annum. That’s where the money for education comes from and it’s pretty flat.