|
The Logan County Board asked Regional Superintendent of Schools Jean
Anderson to come before the board this month to explain how this
would affect her office and local education.
Anderson said that in the governor's address, he proposed that
$100 million could be saved through school consolidations and $13
million by eliminating ROEs.
The budget cut would eliminate 44 regional offices located
throughout the state and three intermediate offices in Cook County.
The state of Illinois has 102 counties. Anderson's office serves
three counties: Logan, Mason and Menard. With Logan County and the
city of Lincoln being the largest population base, the office is
located in Lincoln.
Anderson explained the impacts of eliminating the offices. While
closing them would save the state $13 million, the ROEs bring in
$135 million per year through state and federal grants "that even
the State Board of Education can't access," she said.
She said her office provides services to a lot of people. Those
funds benefit our students through a number of programs and
services.
Some of the grant-funded programs that the local office oversees
are for truancy intervention, assisting schools not making adequate
progress, teacher recertification, education for gifted students and
a homeless program.
She said the governor suggested that with the $13 million saved,
Illinois might be able to add 900 jobs.
Yet, eliminating the ROEs would mean a loss of 2,500 ROE jobs,
with a few of those jobs being court-related service under the
oversight of the regional offices.
Her illustrations indicated that the cut would not have the
financial benefit intended for the state, but would reduce the
number of jobs and salaries while compromising programs that aid the
education system.
A guest at the board meeting, Wanda Lee Rohlfs, asked: "Should
the regional offices go away, would our school systems be run out of
Chicago?"
Anderson replied that she didn't know what reorganization would
be done.
"It would take legislative changes to decide that," she said.
She recalled recently attending a transportation meeting to
discuss school buses, and at that meeting a man adamantly kept
saying how they do things in Chicago, until someone spoke up to say
that's not how the rest of the state does things.
This illustrated one of the many important reasons to have local
and regional education representation.
"We are a presence for downstate Illinois," she said.
[to top of second column] |
Anderson warmly invited and urged board members to come to her
office for a visit any day and see what all goes on there, to be
able to understand the scope and importance of the work they do.
"We are public servants and we work for our children," she said.
County board members unanimously agreed to send a letter
supporting that the Regional Office of Education be kept in the
state budget.
It was noted that the governor no longer is accessible through
email and that the fax machine has been shut off. The letter would
be sent by postal mail to the governor, lieutenant governor and
local state representatives.
The state and ROE fiscal year begins on July 1.
___
Want to know more about what the
Logan-Mason-Menard Regional
Office of Education provides our school system?
You will enjoy reading the following articles in a special series
written by LDN about the local office:
A discussion with Regional Superintendent of Schools Jean Anderson
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST] |
