Page 26 - August 2017

Police issues take back seat to school funding
The Illinois Legislature’s long, continual summer session drones on and on.
Keep an eye on this topic that affects every school district in Illinois.
DAVE
DAVE
SULLIVAN
SULLIVAN
As I write this article, the Legislature is in special session to address the dif- ficult and complicated issue of how to fund education in Illinois. As you can imagine, there are many different per- R spectives between both parties as well
as throughout the geographical areas of
the state, from Chicago to the suburbs and downstate. This issue has been studied and debated for several de- cades, and the governor and the Legislature have a unique opportunity to address this topic. It will be, as usual, in- teresting to see how this pans out. While the status quo is usually the safe bet, I am not convinced that will be true this time. There is a new statutory requirement that the funding mechanism be changed this month before funds can be distributed to school districts throughout Illinois.
In other news, it appears that we are heading toward another large turnover in the Legislature. The past couple of elections have each seen great numbers of new legislators elected, and it looks like 2018 y will continue that trend. Two senators and three representatives have already announced that they will not seek re-election in 2018. Senate Republi- can Leader Christine Radogno has resigned her seat and has been replaced by DuPage County Board Mem- ber John Curran. Legislators will begin passing petitions
sooner than we think for 2018!
While the Legislature has been working on a budget
and school funding this summer, the police issues that we follow closely have not been moving forward, which is generally a good thing. We continue to work with legisla- tors to address police issues. d
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26 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2017