Dan@senatorkotowski.com
The Daily Southtown’s Phil Kadner
Few local writers have been as dogged on the school funding issue as Phil Kadner of the Daily Southtown.
In today’s column he traces the fifteen year battle to carry out the requirements of the state’s own constitution and the political cowardice that has prevented success.
I do not pretend that a new, better school funding system will change all that is wrong with public education.
But you can’t start to address those issues if you begin with a funding process that is fatally flawed.
Poll after poll in this state reveal that taxpayers are ready to make the commitment.
They were willing to sacrifice, to pay higher income taxes, to change the system.
Still, our government leaders refuse to act.
Why? Because they see no political gain from acting.
They will be re-elected, as they have been in the past, if they do nothing.
There is no retribution if children fail in school and end up in prison.
They suffer no penalty when some 72-year-old citizen sells his house and moves to another state.
It has been proven that ignoring the problem is the perfect political remedy.
I have appealed to politicians to do the right thing. I have ridiculed them for failing to act.
Nothing has worked.
Yet I cannot walk away from this issue.
Harm is being done to people who have done no harm.
Futures are being destroyed.
Communities are on the verge of collapse.
Legislators can nitpick plans, find flaws in proposals and rationalize their indifference.
It has been that way for 15 years.
But something ought to be done.
I ask them once again to do the right thing.
The state school funding system is inadequate, unfair and incomprehensible.
People are counting on you to solve the problem. Don’t turn your backs on them again.
I have suggested to our PREA members that they send a copy of Kadner’s column to our state senator, Dan Kotowski:
Dan@senatorkotowski.com
