Posted September 22, 2006

About 60 people attended the annual District 41 PTA Council’s Legislative Breakfast on Saturday, discussing the impact of current and proposed legislation on schools with State Representative Sandra Pihos and Illinois School Board of Education member (and former District 41 Board Member) Dean Clark. The Hadley Library offered an informal, conversational setting, and members of the Hadley Student Council greeted participants, helped with set-up and provided a youthful point of view. Citizens and leaders from districts 16, 41, 87, 89 and others attended, including administrators, Board of Education members and PTA members. Among the issues discussed were No Child Left Behind, a law intending to close achievement gaps among students by requiring that every child (special ed included) meet state standards in reading and math by 2014, and that every school improve test scores every year.

Participants discussed whether or not all schools will eventually find it impossible to make what NCLB calls “Adequate Yearly Progress” or AYP, concern that the law might result in less attention given to high achieving students, and that the requirement that all students meet standards might create pressure to actually lower standards. Unfunded mandates and school funding were another major topic of discussion. The state and federal government provide insufficient dollars to fund programs they require schools to implement, examples being bilingual and special education. In addition, the long-term impact of the tax-cap legislation has been to lower the rate at which taxes rise and has made referenda essential to the ability of schools to maintain healthy finances. The state of Illinois is near the bottom of the list nationwide in terms of how much it contributes to school funding, with most of the funding coming from local property taxes rather than state sources; other funding models were discussed including a proposal to use the state sales tax. Participants also focused on grass-roots advocacy, how to get their message to legislators and what constitutes effective constituent action. In addition to the discussions, State Representative Sandra Pihos and State Senator Dan Cronin (who was not present) were recognized with the Illinois School Guidance Counselor’s Association’s Legislator of the Year award for their work in making the Board Certification program available for school counselors as well as teachers.