This past weekend, Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), a pastor at Salem Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side, brought more attention school funding in Illinois. Meeks’ has called on Chicago parents to boycott the Chicago Public Schools, keeping children out of school until the funding issues are resolved. To make things worse, nearly 50 other Chicago ministers yesterday announced their support for Meeks’ boycott.
At issue is the disparity in funding between the CPS and suburban schools. This disparity in funding is what Meeks believes leads to a disparity in school performance and student success. On that point I agree with Meeks. The Chicago Tribune reports statistics cited by Rev. Marshall Hatch of New Mt. Pilgrim Church. He attributes John Marshall Metropolitan High School’s 46% graduation rate versus New Trier High Shool’s 99.8% graduation rate to the thousands of dollars more per student per year that New Trier spends over the CPS. I think that there is more to the difference in graduation rates than just school funding, but increased funding could certainly help.
I am not sure what Meeks and the other ministers are hoping to accomplish with their boycott, as school attendance directly impacts school funding. The empty classrooms will only result in less funding for the CPS, rather than forcing the state’s hand and changing policy. The issue of school funding has been around longer than I have been, and it most certainly is not going to be resolved overnight because of a boycott.
Thankfully, another group of ministers has called for a different approach. The organizers of the 5th annual Million Father March in Chicago are asking fathers to escort their children to school on the first day. This, says Rev. Sharyon Cosey, "sets the tone for the entire year." Cosey is a retired teacher.
I wish there was an easy answer to the school funding issue, but there isn’t. Taxes, fees and fines can be increased to bring in more revenue, but the chances of that money getting to the schools that need it are slim. The budgets of wealthier schools could be cut to increase the budgets of poorer schools, but wealthier schools will do everything in their power to prevent a redistribution of wealth, as it were. I do not envy the "deciders" when it comes to choosing which programs to fund and how much to fund them. Most come out losing, and very few come out winning.
Do you have any ideas on school funding and how to fix the problems? Post them in the comments below.
I can’t say I have specific plans beyond increasing what is already in place, property and “sin” taxes and the like. The problem with CPS schools goes beyond funding I think, and isn’t likely to be improved simply by throwing money at it. Many of the issues are cultural, and school funding isn’t going to prevent dropouts unless the students want to be there, and many CPS students don’t. There is an attitude among many urban poor groups that school is the white man’s game, and the role models they emulate are not educated professionals but athletes, musicians and drug dealers. Increasing school funding won’t change that, so it’s only part of the issue. There needs to be genuine hope that going to school can provide them with a life outside the awful conditions they grow up in, and I don’t know how we provide that with todays media emphasizing all the wrong things. In conclusion, I don’t know what to do about anything. Maybe, just maybe, a black man becoming President can provide that hope we need so badly…