Demand Fair Funding for Illinois Public Schools

According to research conducted by The Education Trust, a national non-profit advocacy organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students at all levels, particularly for students of color and low-income students - and reported on by Phil Kadner of the Chicago Tribune,

"Illinois has the most unfair school funding system in the nation...The state's school districts with the greatest number of students living in poverty receive substantially fewer state and local dollars than their more affluent counterparts — nearly 20 percent less, according to the study."

All children are our future and a great disservice and disadvantage is being pressed upon our students by not giving them an equal playing. The manner in which our schools are funded still resembles Jim Crow Era jerrymandering used to disenfranchise and segregate citizens under the banner of "Separate But Equal"

"Using the property tax to primarily finance public education allows a school district with the greatest property wealth (whose students typically start out with more advantages), to spend more on teacher salaries and extracurricular programs, while forcing districts with a comparatively small property tax base to cut corners."

With our state budget in a revolving state of crisis and education nearly always on the chopping block, use your signature and your voice to demand that Illinois State Legislators reform school funding to give affluent and minority students alike equal opportunity in education.