Every day, students walk throughout Huntley High School, Conley Elementary, and even Marlowe Middle School. But what if one day, your education was not the best ? What if it continued to grow worse by the day?
The Committee of the Whole (COW) Board of Education for District 158 have a growing concern: Senate Bill 16.
Senate Bill 16 was proposed last July to be able to fund public education for the state of Illinois. This was meant to improve, never to hurt Illinois. The students who live in Illinois will be the most affected because they can not receive a quality education every day.
District Geneva 304 has this problem with Senate Bill 16. They are funded by local taxpayers by 90.7%, and with Senate Bill 16, they stand to lose 79.9% of education funding. District Geneva 304 is only 40 minutes away from Huntley. Senate Bill 16 will reach us no matter what, so it has to be ended.
$6,119 is also the “Foundation Level” per student in Illinois. But under Senate Bill 16, the money for students will decrease, leaving them with no quality education. This not only hurts students, but local taxpayers.
But as this bill keeps going on, the damage builds to a “path of darkness,” said board member Michael Fleck.
District 158 met with other districts in Crystal Lake to discuss this issue. The point is this will affect students, parents, and teachers. This Bill will hurt us if we do nothing about it. Look what happened to District Geneva 304, that will happen to District 158.
State funding will decrease tremendously, and this will be a hurdle to students being able to have a quality education. Services and programs will also need to be reduced.
This may even mean saying goodbye to sports and clubs here at HHS.
With all of this money lost, there is no recovery for new money under Senate Bill 16.
This issue will be brought up in the Fall Veto Session in late November by House sponsor Linda Chapa LaVia.
“This issue means nothing to Legislatures in Springfield,” said a local citizen.
The Board recommends to save all of the district, and get our voices heard to take action on online petitions, or contacting the state senators.
“With former Governor Quinn conceded, a lot will happen between now and then.” said board member Donald Drzal.
