Blizzard Of New Illinois Laws But School Consolidation Bill Left To Die. Thank Teachers’ Unions. – Wirepoints – UPDATED

This column was substantially rewritten to include description of how many Republicans ultimately joined in opposing the bill.

By: Mark Glennon*

It was the only meaningful fiscal reform that seemed to have a ray of hope in the Illinois General Assembly session this past spring. Sponsored by Democrat Rita Mayfield of Waukegan, it had bipartisan sponsorship and support. It was House Bill 7, a bill that would have called for community referendums on consolidating local school district administration and redirecting the resulting administrative savings into direct classroom spending.

It didn’t pass. Why?

Because teachers unions said no, that’s why.

“No clear reason for opposition to [the bill] surfaced, only that the unions’ bosses came out against it, wrote Charles Selle in a Chicago Tribune column recently.

Efficiency means fewer public union members so, in Springfield, that’s not going to happen.

School district consolidation should be a top priority in Illinois. Illinois is spending billions on duplicative district offices, administrators and their multi-million dollar pensions, which we detailed in an earlier special report.

Illinois has 852 school districts, many of which are overlapping and duplicative. By comparison, Florida has just 67 districts. North Carolina and Virginia have just 115 and 132 districts, respectively. Even California, with three times the number of students as Illinois, has just 160 more districts more than Illinois

  • Over a third of Illinois districts serve 600 students or less. (129 have fewer than 300 students.)
  • Nearly 45 percent of districts serve just one to two schools.
  • And over half the districts in Illinois are separate elementary and high school districts, rather than combined unit districts.

Under Mayfield’s bill, a commission would have made recommendations on which districts would benefit most from consolidation, with a goal of reducing the total number of school districts by 25% to bring Illinois in line with the national average. The consolidation recommendations would then go directly to voters on the ballot. Ultimate savings could have exceeded $700 million per year, according to an Illinois Policy Institute analysis.

There would have been no forced consolidation under the bill. Local voters would have decided. It would not have consolidated schools, only the bureaucracies that oversee them.

We certainly can’t allow that, as Illinois teachers unions see things. Both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Association opposed the bill, as the Tribune column said.

The bill had passed unanimously out of Housed school committee and a similar bill had passed the House last year. This year, however, teachers unions and school administrators piled on as a final vote approached. Republicans and Democrats alike changed their tune. Nineteen House Republicans voted ended up voting ‘No’ and four others took a pass.

It’s a clear lesson that many Republicans kowtow to public unions just like Democrats on things that matter. How each House member finally voted is here.

Joining the opposition was the Illinois Association of School Boards, showing again that most school boards have no interest in reform and cost cutting. They are typically “rubber stamps” for school administrators, as the Tribune column said.

And the association argued their case dishonestly, as the IPI explained. The association’s misinformation sheet claimed the bill would have forced consolidation and imposed one-size-fits-all standards for consolidation. Not true. The bill for was not about school consolidation as the association implied. It only addressed the administrative units overseeing schools.

So the reform bill was left to die in the Illinois House.

But don’t think your lawmakers didn’t keep themselves busy. Gov. JB Pritzker has been signing into law more of their bills than we can keep track of. On Friday alone he signed more than 80 bills into law and he still has another 330 or so on his desk to decide on. Among them the gems he already signed:

Bill Number: HB 18 Allows school districts to perform teacher evaluations every two or three years, rather than every two years, if the teacher previously received a rating of at least “proficient.”

Bill Number: SB 294 Requires clear and conspicuous labeling “Do Not Flush” on nonwoven disposable wipes.

Bill Number: HB 375 Requires the board of public universities and community colleges to notify adjunct professors about the enrollment status of their courses both 30 days and 14 prior to the start of a semester or term.

Bill Number: HB 453 Requires taxing districts with a levy more than $5 million to collect and publish ethnic and race data on vendors and contractors which do business with the taxing district.

Bill Number: SB 1245 Requires the Department of Natural Resources to publicly announce which counties will have hunting season.

Such are the priorities of the Illinois General Assembly.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

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Freddy
2 years ago

Here’s an article on consolidation. https://www.bettergov.org/news/too-many-school-districts-in-illinois-what-you-should-know-about-school-consolidation. My opinion is that even if consolidation would happen it would create larger districts by absorbing the smaller ones. The smaller districts with just 140 or so students like Rondout 72 should be combined with larger ones. The purpose is to reduce administrative costs but those administrators/staff would likely be hired by the new larger school. Instead of have 2 or 3 assistant supers they would have 5 or 6+. Belvidere has at least 4 or 5. I think they hire one or two to count the other 3 or four and call it… Read more »

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Freddy

I agree, and you’ve said it very well. The presumed cost savings during planning for school district consolidations soon turn to dust. That happens for various reasons, but the saving, if any, are nowhere near what was predicted most times.

state_pension_millionaires
2 years ago

Outrageous; as per usual, the regular Illinois taxpayer is sold out by our state politicians, to curry favor with the Il public unions (and their fabulous, and largely unfunded, pensions).

We have had it…gonna be some “act up” by joe six pack. Maybe nothing more than becoming a refugee to another state….but change is coming.

TTH
2 years ago

“but change is coming”

Sure it is. Adorable. I doubt Joe six pack knows anything about this bill.

James
2 years ago

I have to say I can’t understand why teachers themselves would overwhelmingly oppose school district consolidation! Mostly the local citizens and higher echelon school administrators are in that camp for how it affects them personally. The teachers generally surely are more neutral except, perhaps, as consolidation would cause them anguish in personal ways such as a longer commute, changing their working environment, and/or loss of a coaching job or other exra-duty assignment which brings in more income. But, to say that teachers themselves are great opponents is a stretch, I think. These other offenders are far removed from the actual… Read more »

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

I don’t know who you mean by “they.” Again, I don’t think teachers themselves are necessarily all that opposed to school district consolidations. Its the other interest groups I mentioned that I’d point to as those more likely opposed to it and principally the local citizens. When put to a vote its generally turned-down by the voters who pay the taxes to retain their schools as they’ve come to know them down through multiple generatons. Where it involves rural schools they do so to a good extent because the local schools provide a convenient place for watching school activites and… Read more »

Willowglen
2 years ago
Reply to  James

I live in Virginia – one school district for 1.2M people in Fairfax County. We have schools here! And guess what, most of them are a lot better than what you encounter in Illinois. Numbers and performance matter.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Willowglen

Okay, and I can fully appreciate your point. Stll, I don’t see this as immediately relevant as a reponse to my comment.

nixit
2 years ago

I can see the IASB opposing it as administrative overhead is their bread and butter. But consolidated school districts mean more money for classrooms (ie more cash for teachers) and less managers. The teachers unions should be pro-consolidation. This just demonstrates how change-averse organized labor truly is.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

Mankind in general is “change-averse.” Maybe you’ve noticed it, too. Even the local taxpayers in general are change-averse, and I mentioned that a little more elaborately in another posting a minute ago. They resist the fears of change more than than they resist paying the higher taxes of having a smaller district and, therefore, typically vote against it.

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