The panel outlined how suburban Cook County school districts
would lose millions in General State Aid if SB16 is approved and signed into
law as currently written. State Representative Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) said
the school districts located within the 54th Legislative House
District would lose a combined $40.1 million per year through SB16. “School funding reform is a critical issue,
but SB16 is not the answer,” Morrison said. “It simply creates a new list of
funding winners by taking GSA away from the districts whose taxpayers already
shoulder a disproportionate share of the cost of educating kids in this state.
Funding reductions at the levels included in SB16 would be a game-changer in
how children in suburban Cook County are educated.”
Morrison was joined on stage by Senator Matt Murphy
(R-Palatine) and State Representative David Harris (R-Mt. Prospect). Other
speakers included State Superintendent of Education Chris Koch, Benjamin Boer from the Advance
Illinois Education Advocacy group and Superintendents from several area school
districts.
Attendees were encouraged to get involved in the effort to
stop SB16 by calling the Governor, Speaker Madigan, SB16 Sponsor Senator Andy
Manar and area legislators to let them know that the provisions of SB16 do not
solve school funding issues and are unfair to suburban taxpayers. “Those of us
who live in the suburbs need to be unified in our support of our local
schools,” Morrison said. “We need to send a loud message downstate that
stripping GSA away from our districts is unacceptable.”