- Published: Friday, January 22, 2016 04:06 PM
“Why not try fully and fairly funding our schools before declaring bankruptcy?”
CHICAGO – State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement that Gov. Rauner’s allies in the General Assembly will file legislation allowing a state takeover and bankruptcy filing for the Chicago Public Schools:
The shortfall in the Chicago Public Schools’ budget is roughly equal to the additional resources our schools would receive from the state if the funding formula and pension law treated CPS the same as every other Illinois school district.
Gov. Rauner and Republicans in the General Assembly have not acted to bring justice and equity to the way the state distributes resources to schools. The governor has vetoed the budget we passed, starving after-school programs, youth anti-violence initiatives and assistance to homeless families of the resources Chicago’s at-risk children need to stay in school and succeed. Now he and his legislative leaders propose a takeover of CPS by the State Board of Education, an agency already struggling to fulfill its current mission without a budget and ill-equipped to manage the nation’s third largest school district. They propose a bankruptcy declaration for CPS – a legal maneuver that has exacted a punishing human toll in Detroit and Flint. And their plan would throw existing contracts and collective bargaining agreements into turmoil at a time when Chicago’s educators need greater stability and support, not less.
Why not negotiate a balanced budget for state government before burdening it with drastic and unworkable new duties? Why not try fully and fairly funding our schools before declaring bankruptcy? And why not start with an elected school board instead of stripping all local control from CPS, with a promise to phase in school board elections at a later date?
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