General talking points
· All children in Illinois deserve a high-quality education, regardless of where they live. But Illinois’ property-tax dependent school funding system shortchanges schools, burdens property taxpayers, and punishes students in poor communities.
· Illinois ranks 48th in the nation in the level of state support for education, putting pressure on local communities to keep increasing property taxes at the expense of economic development, senior citizens, and housing for working families.
· The gap in academic achievement between students in property-rich and property-poor communities is growing rapidly and is one of the highest in the country. This is not surprising, since the school funding gap between rich and poorer communities is the widest in the entire nation.
· Most urban, suburban, and rural districts are being forced to make tough decisions that compromise the quality of education they can provide to their students. Due to funding shortages, many schools are increasing class sizes, laying off teachers, cutting important programs such as teacher training, and relying on outdated textbooks and equipment. Please add any additional staff or program cuts that have affected schools in your community.
· Elected officials in Illinois need to make reforming school funding and quality and delivering property tax relief their top priority this year! We can’t afford to lose another generation of bright young students to our broken school funding system.