 "And finally," he said, "and this is the most painful cut of all --
we must reduce spending on elementary, secondary and higher
education by 1.3 billion dollars. That represents a 17 percent cut
in state funding to grammar schools and high schools across our
state."Quinn said that the cure to this crisis was a 1 percent
tax increase that would restore the education budget to current
levels -- and allow the state to get caught up on some of the
millions of dollars owed to public schools, community colleges
and four-year universities.
He concluded that portion of his speech by saying, "You must make
some tough choices, either by approving a plan for new education
revenue or by passing a budget that will starve public education at
every level in every community in Illinois."
Looking at the list of proposed cuts, Jean Anderson, the regional
superintendent of schools for Logan, Mason and Menard counties,
said, "These are definitely times of great concern."
Portions of that $1.3 billion budget cut are going to come out of
some very specific programs designed to address the needs of at-risk
and special-needs children.
For example, funds will be taken from bilingual education, a
reading program for blind and dyslexic students, Children's Mental
Health Partnership, transportation and other services for disabled
students, special education reimbursement, and educational materials
for visually impaired -- all programs for special-needs children.
While none of these programs is being completely cut out,
Anderson said that with the reduction in funding, school districts
statewide are going to have to make some tough decisions.
Some teachers will have to be let go and some will find
themselves doing double duty. Class sizes will increase, and
teachers who are qualified to instruct in more than one field will
possibly be assigned to do so as schools attempt to stretch the
dollars they do have to cover the needs of their entire student
population.
She commented that while in the case of older children such as
eighth-graders, seeing a class go from 23 students to 30 may not
have a serious effect on the students, the opposite will be true in
the younger grade levels.
"When you're talking first-graders, a class of 30 is much
different than a class of 20, for example," Anderson explained.
"Class sizes are not just somebody's idea of what would be easier
and what will fit into the size of a room better; they basically are
how much individualized attention can teachers provide to students
in a given day."
The same will be true in special-needs classes. If class size is
increased to make up for lost teachers, the children in those
classes may not get everything they need in one-on-one
time and attention.
Funding cuts are also going to have a direct effect on the
services offered by the Regional Offices of Education.
The tri-county region that includes Logan County is commonly
referred to as ROE 38. The responsibilities of the ROE are broad but
include oversight and assistance to the individual school districts,
assuring that they are maintaining proper facilities, policy and
procedures according the guidelines of the Illinois State Board of
Education.
In addition, the ROE is responsible for bus driver training,
response to intervention, alternative and optional education
programs for truants, and Regional Safe Schools, all of which are
going to be taking significant cuts in the new budget.
ROEs also assist with identifying a need, providing training for
teachers with students needing bilingual education, and have also
been involved with the national board certification process for the
last few years -- again, programs that are facing the big cuts.
The two programs that may be the hardest hit from the budget cuts
are the SPIRIT truancy program and the Salt Creek Academy, which is
the ROE's Safe School.
Anderson said that this school year, the state has managed to
make only one payment for the truancy program.
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"Truancy money we have been borrowing from ourselves," she said.
"We've had one caseworker leave already because he felt the writing
was on the wall. We hated to see him go. We didn't ask him to leave
and would have done what we could have to keep him, but he had to
think of his own future."
Salt Creek Academy in Fancy Prairie is the ROE's Safe School. The
school is specifically for children who have had behavioral problems
in the public system.
For the child and school administration, it is the last chance
before expulsion and offers students an opportunity to turn
their lives around academically, improve their grades and eventually
go back into the mainstream system.
Anderson said that Salt Creek does benefit from a grant, but
their primary source of revenue is from the school districts, in
that they pay for a student to attend.
With cuts in funding, the schools will have to decide between
expulsion and Safe School, based more on available dollars than on a
child's potential to reform.
"As times get tougher," Anderson said, "schools may get more
choosy about whom they want to send. As our numbers go down, it will
get harder to keep the program."
Other programs on the chopping block are student assessments,
Reading Improvement Block Grant, technology, Grow Your Own Teachers
and textbook loans.
Another area of concern is the reduction in funding for free and
reduced breakfast and lunch programs for children of low-income
families.
And finally, early childhood education, agricultural education,
and arts and foreign language are also taking heavy hits.
Anderson believes that arts and foreign language as well as other
extracurricular programs are very important to the well-rounded
child, plus they help students in their basic learning skills. As an example, she said there have been several studies
documenting that students who study music perform better in
mathematics.
Additionally, some careers begin with art in the lower grades.
She cites graphic designers as an example, saying: "If they are not
allowed to take art classes, how are they going to accomplish that?
You can't go to college and get everything you need. A lot of times
you have to have a background along the way."
Anderson did not speak out either in favor or against tax
increases in Illinois, but she did speak about some comments she's
heard recently. She said that some have said that education needs to
go back to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and do away
with everything else.
She continued by saying that technology education is vital in
today's world as are many other avenues of learning that go far
beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
"If we're going to be competitive with other countries," she
concluded, "we have to offer whatever we can so that our students
can excel."
[By NILA SMITH]
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