When Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, visited Kingsley Elementary School in October 2001, he presented Evanston/Skokie School District 65 officials with a catalog of his ideas on education reform.
Compared to Vallas, whose candidacy for governor ended at the March primaries, some school officials said Tuesday’s choices at the polls are lacking.
The former gubernatorial candidate discussed halting ineffective state-mandated testing, improving professional development for teachers and increasing state funding for schools by as much as 5 percent per student.
“We might have a governor that will care about education,” said Mary Erickson, a District 65 school board member. “But we certainly won’t have one that will know as much (about education) as Vallas.”
Although both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Jim Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich, have extensive plans for improving education in Illinois, where large gaps exist between the richest and poorest school districts, neither candidate’s platforms on education exhibit startling contrast.
More importantly, District 65 Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy said, neither candidate offers any revolutionary ideas for change.
“I think we’re dealing with a limited set of options,” Murphy said. “I haven’t heard anything from anybody that gets out of the box.”
Both candidates said they will continue the state’s policy of allocating 51 percent of all new revenues toward education. Blagojevich pledged to codify this program into law in addition to using $100 million from the state tobacco settlement for an early childhood development program.
Margaret Lurie, vice president of the Evanston School District 202 school board, said this is only a start.
“There are so many state-mandated programs, programs that are required by the state, that are not funded,” Lurie said. “We’re just having a hard time keeping up.”
Both candidates’ platforms emphasize early reading programs, citing studies that show academic success is predicted by third-graders’ reading scores.
Blagojevich has said he would provide more at-risk preschoolers with developmental disability prevention services and that he would decrease classroom sizes for more individualized instruction. Ryan has said he would examine all reading programs and would halt funding for programs that do not show results, while expanding the programs that show results.
Murphy said he believes this is characteristic of a national trend toward “results-oriented” positions, though that type of thinking is not always appropriate.
“I think it’s important for candidates to realize some flexibility has to be maintained,” Murphy said. “It isn’t one-size-fits-all in school districts.”
Lurie said even districts made up of only high schools, such as District 202, can benefit from the candidates’ emphasis on early reading programs.
“We’ve had at least 25 percent of (freshmen) come in not reading at grade level,” Lurie said. “We’ve had to set up remedial reading programs. Any programs at the elementary level — any help they could give us — would be great.”
Neither candidate has plans for aiding districts in budget crises, a problem District 65 has struggled with in the past. Last year the district was forced to approve a budget already $1.5 million in the red. Erickson said candidates need to make it easier for school districts to help themselves get out of debt.
“The new governor should realistically look at the impact of tax caps and how not allowing districts to have levies has some relationship to the expenses that districts face,” Erickson said. “It’s not just us. There are more and more districts that have been financially healthy that are spending their reserves. We’re not alone.”
