It's not often you can get Governor Rauner, CEO Forrest Claypool and members of both political parties on the same page but that is exactly what happened in the last 24 hours with regard to a report on state school funding. Here's the essence of the report in just one sentence. "The commission members agree that low-income children and those who live in areas of concentrated poverty require additional resources and attention to reach their academic potential."
What will be done to advance this core principle? Who will take the bold action to see to it that the most impoverished among our state's school children have their needs met?
One of the other elements in the report stated that it will cost $3.5 billion over a 10 year period to bring every school district to the desired level.
This won't be easy for lots of reasons. There is a budget crisis in the state and we have members of the legislature at odds with one another and the Governor. These education needs are but one of many that has to be addressed within the larger framework of an entire state budget. There are plenty of other potential roadblocks to getting this done.
Like I said, can we get people to work together to address these concerns? Time will tell.
Dick
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