Reject Ploy to Hike Taxes for Education

“Reject ploy to hike taxes for education” is the title of a letter to the editor in the Daily Herald. [Emphasis mine]

State government thinks educating Illinois children is about money, not learning. The Illinois State Board of Education regularly lowers the achievement bar so we can keep wishfully thinking no child’s being left behind. The General Assembly continues its constant push to plow more money into the insatiable public school pig, with no interest in actually improving education. SB2288 is the latest incarnation of the so-called tax swap (see also HB750) that the Illinois Senate has already rammed through committee and onto the Senate floor. It promises $8 billion in tax hikes on workers and businesses, and has no provisions for improving achievement. The debate about education should be about quality and value in education, not blindly funding the government school system. Interesting that the pro-tax crowd wants to change Illinois school funding, but opposes a Constitutional Convention. Springfield: NO on SB2288 and its ilk. Chris Jenner Cary

I agree with Chris and have written about this bill and its predecessors many times before. This bill does nothing to improve education. It is just another tax increase under the guise of helping the children. Here is the breakdown of where the money will go:

• 56.5% will go to fund state debt, road construction, state employee pensions and unpaid Medicaid bills
• 36% will go to property tax relief
• 7.5% will go to education

As you can see, only 7.5% of this $8 billion tax increase will actually get to the school districts. Once this small percentage of money gets to the school districts 70-80% of the money will go to salaries instead of to the children.

When are our politicians going to stand up for the children instead of the education bureaucracy and teachers unions? When are the teachers going to stand up to their union and tell them to start supporting the children? The answer to that question is very clear. The teachers unions and public government school bureaucracy is bloated and self serving. They are not going to stand up for the children until we citizens force the issue. It is long past time to start funding the child and stop funding the bureaucracy.