It was like Groundhog Day for public education recently, as about 40 or so Chicago parents, students, and activists did pretty much the exact same thing they did at about this time a year ago: headed north to Illinois governor Bruce Rauner’s house to protest his school funding policies.
“I try to stay hopeful, but things are getting worse,” says Mary Fahey Hughes, a mother of four CPS students from Beverly who showed up at Rauner’s house on August 2.
Moreover, at the moment no schools—rich or poor—are getting any state aid. Even though legislators passed a budget last month, over Rauner’s veto. That’s because on August 1 the governor vetoed Senate Bill 1, the education aid distribution bill.
If the Democrats buckle and agree to those tax credits to get Rauner to approve SB1, there will be less money for the public schools to receive once the state starts distributing the funds. In short, the public schools lose—once again.
I’m torn on this issue. On the one hand, it’s about time someone took a wrecking ball to the TIF scam. On the other hand, if it means less money for CPS, then once again the people hit the hardest are the low-income children of Chicago. The poorest people get the short end of the TIF stick even when the program’s being “reformed.”
