Illinois Senate Bill 2288 has remained in limbo for over one year. Tabooed, the bill that increases personal state income tax by 2 percent has the best chance of passing after the next election.

Do not be scared, this is not big government taking your milk money. The 2 percent increase in state income tax is to negate 20 percent of property taxes that go to public education, so we finally can move closer to fulfilling Brown v. Board of Education.

“Where a state has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms,” states Brown v Board of Education page 493.

However, without activism that mimicked that of Brown, the inequalities of our property-tax based public education system would have remained unattended.

Amanda Paulson, staff writer of the Christian Science Monitor, covers Chicago protests at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka. In her Sept. 4, 2008 article, “Kids’ protest highlights rich-poor schools gap in Illinois,” Paulson records the display of 2,000 Chicago Public School students and parents trying to enroll in the states most prestigious public high school.

The demand for a New Trier High education comes from district spending of $18,613 per student, double the state average of $9,462. The spending results in a graduation rate of 99 percent, an average compost ACT score of 26.8, skilled faculty, and a plethora of electives, clubs and athletics.

Randy Zamin, a mathematics teacher at New Trier, had this to say about how the environment in which he teaches.

“Each teacher has a tablet laptop which we use to develop lessons, deliver lessons and do all administrative things like attendance and accessing student records; Our kids take school very seriously. I have never had a student thank me for that day’s lesson until I got to New Trier; Without a doubt [the environment compliments the quality of my instruction], New Trier provides the most professional environment that I have been in. I came to New Trier with 17 years of teaching experience, but worked harder than I have ever worked before. It’s probably not healthy, but it seems to be the culture here,” said Zamin, who received his B.A. and M.A. from NIU.

One wonders if Mr. Zamin would find that same environment at a City of Chicago District school like Taft, King or Amundsen, all of which still spend the state average on students.

This is why Senate Bill 2288 is so important, because it implies for the first time that the wealth of individuals in school districts creates inequality in the public school system. Reasoning that even subsidized districts composited of low-income students cannot provide an equal education to average schools like Argo Community, or Blue Ridge due to the supplementary expenses (like free lunch) those low-income districts have to pay for.

With Illinois’ ratio of state verse property tax funding for education ranking 49, according to Paulson’s article, Senate Bill 2288 is a breath of fresh air. Even though critics say that money does not equal results, that rhetoric has proven statistically invalid with graduation rates within the City of Chicago School District averaging 47 percent.

As stated above and in Brown, education is a right that must be made available on equal terms. Finally our governance recognizes that basing school funding on the wealth of the community is not equal, for we still have segregated communities. And if we ever want to assimilate the cultures of our society we cannot condemn certain communities to an endless cycle of inferiority.

We as voters have to demand our public officials to unwrap this candy bar of equality. Not only will it increase funding for even the average high schools, but it will also lower property taxes throughout the state, i.e. cheaper rent for us college students.

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.