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It’s Time To Start Doing Right Again

On May 28, Oregon High School graduated 131 students of the Class of 2017.  And, like previous graduation ceremonies, I sat on stage and wondered where we had done right by these kids, and where we could have done better.

And by “we,” I don’t just mean the adults in the Oregon school district. I also mean the adults in charge of Illinois state government.

I’m deeply suspicious of anyone who believes that, when it comes to educating kids, that educators can do the same type of work with fewer resources or, taken one degree further, that educators can do more work with fewer resources.

The Illinois legislature right now believes that school districts such as Oregon’s -- small, rural and reliant on state funding -- can do more with less.

Right now, the state of Illinois owes our district $979,845.68 in general state aid for this fiscal year, and forgave itself another $966,611.81 by decreasing the overall percentage of state aid we thought we had coming. That’s a shortfall of $1,946,457.49 on a $16 million budget.

The business analogy of what the state is doing to school districts across Illinois is this: You have mortgage but, rather than paying what you owe each month, you decide to do two things: First, you tell the bank you are going to forgive yourself of, say, 10% of what you owe it for the year. And second, of the reduced amount you now say you owe, pay that amount perpetually late.

If any of us were to try that tactic, we wouldn’t keep our houses long. It’s time to lean hard on our legislature and our governor and tell them it’s time to start doing right by our kids again.

I’m Andrew Nelson, and that is my perspective.

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