* From 1st grade through the beginning of 8th grade, I lived with my family on a farm in rural Iroquois County. I rode the bus to school every day. The trip home took almost an hour, except on Mondays when the Catholic kids had Catechism class. I’m intimately familiar with bus rides, and know how important those buses are to many, many schools in this state.
There’s not a whole lot that most school districts can do about their transportation costs except perhaps privatize them or put off new purchases. But even that won’t be enough to absorb Gov. Pat Quinn’s eye-popping 42 percent cut to school transporation lines…
New Berlin, for example, covers 152 square miles. It relies on 18 buses to transport a majority of its students, School Superintendent Valerie Carr said.
The district had planned for a 20 percent reduction in transportation funding.
“We have already cut back on the purchase of new buses. We are making every attempt to run our buses as long as possible,” Carr said. “An additional 22-percent decrease will make us seriously consider our transportation budget.”
Efficiency efforts also were already under way in Auburn, School Superintendent Kathy Garrett said.
“We have already tried to consolidate some of our routes and looking at some of the stops we’re making and that type of thing. It’s just a bigger problem now,” Garret said.
To keep buses on the road, the district probably will transfer money from its education fund balance to the transportation fund.
In other words, classroom instruction funds will be raided so that kids can get to school. And we’re not just talking about rural school districts here…
Cook County School District 130 awaits $4 million in state payments for the school year that wrapped up in June.
So news that Gov. Pat Quinn plans to ax an additional $146 million in student transportation funding and $68.5 million in reading improvement funding from districts across Illinois has District 130 Supt. Ray Lauk calling the cuts “appalling,” just as he prepares to welcome students back later this month.
“I’m not disillusioned by anything the state does,” said Lauk, whose district serves students from Crestwood, Alsip, Blue Island and Robbins.
“The state has not been fulfilling its commitment to kids and schools for years and years, and this is just more of the same. It’s appalling, but not surprising.”
* Perhaps the school districts ought to look at what Don Moss and others did to reverse cuts to group homes for the mentally ill…
If there was good news for DHS, Quinn restored funding for small group homes for people with mental illness. When Quinn first announced cuts last month, the homes were on the chopping block, along with all other non-Medicaid programs.
“There was such a clamor that it appears they are going to reverse that,” said Don Moss, a longtime lobbyist for human service issues.
That’s Pat Quinn. Make an announcement of a big cut, then turn over some rocks to come up with some “found money,” and then triumphantly back off. If the schools want to reverse this 42 percent cut, they need to get loud, angry and organized.
* Related and a state roundup…
* Memo: State furloughs invite suit: A top personnel officer in Gov. Quinn’s administration recommended against doubling the number of furlough days for non-union state workers, predicting a wave of litigation could swamp the $18 million in savings targeted under the pay-cut program.
* A U-46 inequity remains an inequity: Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has been on a tear lately, vetoing legislation and rewriting it to suit his purposes. That typically is a governor’s prerogative. Sometimes the revisions and rejections are for the best, but last week, it seemed, Quinn’s purposes were perhaps too political.
* Quinn budget cuts hit schools, social services harder
* Quinn Outlines $1.4 Billion In Cuts
* Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn makes more cuts
* Quinn rolls out more budget cuts
* Aging And Prisons: In a 2004 report, the National Institute of Corrections said that the annual cost of incarceration is around “$60,000 to $70,000 for each elderly inmate compared with about $27,000 for others in the general population.” Part of this is due to rising health-care costs in general; part of it is due to the fact that the stresses of prison life and the poverty that often precedes it wear even more harshly on older people.
* State Bailouts and Constitutions
* Your share of the state debt - States are taking on more debt. Here’s your state’s burden per capita.
* Quinn’s sales tax break contrasts income tax plan
* Sales tax break no net loss or gain to state
* Mixed Reaction on Illinois Sales Tax Holiday
* Governor Quinn Announces Illinois a Top Green Power-Purchasing State
* Quinn signs bill inspired by former Duraco workers: Former workers at Duraco Products Inc. in Streamwood rejoiced after Gov. Quinn signed a bill into law that protects workers from wage theft.
* Lollapalooza Investigated By Illinois Attorney General
* Illinois Secretary of State shares Rockford area success stories from organ donations
- OneMan - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:11 am:
It is a bit sad that ‘Getting Quinn To Cave’ is now a legitimate strategy with a set of working tactics.
But you are right, get some folks to squawk and then everything will be fine.
- bcross - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:13 am:
If you ever hope to encourage/coerce small rural districts to consolidate transportation funds are critical.
- lakeview - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:15 am:
Stuff costs money. Until everyone grows up and admits that and agrees to a tax increase and/or huge cuts in the stuff we want, we’re going to have this mess.
- Bakersfield - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:16 am:
on the plus side, parents can save a few bucks on new pairs of jeans and sneakers- which will come in handy for those long walks to school.
- Been There - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:18 am:
This is where a lot of districts will try to switch to 4 days a week with longer days. This will also disrupt other programs such as those later buses for the after school programs (like those Monday Catechism classes in the buckle of the corn belt).
I never had to take a school bus since we always lived close enough or took the CTA. Do they charge the families for those that take the bus? Or is that part of providing a free education?
- George - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:19 am:
This is the problem Quinn created (and the legislature gave him) with the Emergency Budget Act.
He has to field all the calls and outrage on his cuts, when what he really wants those people doing is talking to their legislators to get them to pass the tax hike.
Quinn gets all the responsibility, when the people who abandoned their responsibility get to spend the summer in tropical climates not even thinking about Illinois. That ain’t gonna get them to change their mind come January.
- ravenswood - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:20 am:
If someone wants to live 20 miles from the nearest school, why should taxpayers subsidize this decision?
- Stones - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:20 am:
Unfortunately Pat Quinn has shown that he is a better campaigner than a Governor. He has proven himself to be nothing short of a disaster since taking over the office.
Unfortunately I don’t think Bill Brady would be any better.
- Robert - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:25 am:
OneMan said it right. sad for school bus drivers who will lose their jobs - school bus drivers are paid far lower wages than CTA bus drivers.
- Montrose - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:26 am:
Ravenswood-
you understand how farms work, right?
- Bakersfield - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:31 am:
If someone wants to live in a house that doesn’t grow food or house cattle, why should someone else have to feed them, right?
- Ahoy - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:32 am:
Maybe we need to look at transformational budget savings by looking into how we have structured our school districts. One of the reason’s New Berlin has such expensive transportation costs is because a large number of the kids that attend the New Berlin School District live in Springfield. These kids literally have to be transported 15 miles to New Berlin while the Springfield School District wants to build a new high school less than a mile away.
Maybe we should look at re-drawing boundary lines or look into county school districts.
Or we could just grip that there is no money and not do anything about it.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:35 am:
Well at least it is becoming common knowledge to ignore everything Quinn says because he will flip flop on just about every position he takes.
- Downstater - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:43 am:
The problem for state, county and muncipal governments is that any government spending is now seen as going directly into the union pockets in the form of wage increases, golden health care packages and outrageous pensions.
Voters don’t feel sympathy for entities that have a unionized workforce (including the schools). There is ABSOLUTELY no appetite for tax increases. We are seeing county jails shut down and there is no voter outrage.
Taxpayers and voters are willing to consider tax increases, when they see unions stepping up to participate in the pain.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:51 am:
No, school districts do not charge for the bus.
(105 ILCS 5/29‑3)”School boards…shall provide free transportation for pupils residing at a distance of one and one‑half miles or more from any school to which they are assigned for attendance maintained within the district, except for those pupils for whom the school board shall certify to the State Board of Education that adequate transportation for the public is available.”
This is fast becoming an unfunded mandate.
Ravenswood: While my father was able to walk to the nearby country school, consolidation has centralized the schools in the name of cost savings.
- 13 - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 10:59 am:
What’s happening seems to me to be a sort of “forced conservatism” that the political right has been calling for. It will be interesting to see if the expectations of smaller government matches the reality of it. This exercise could turn off some of those turning to the right.
- Belle - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:03 am:
Geez, why can’t the parents take their kids to school? Inconvenience is not a good enough reason to increase taxes to pay for everything for everybody
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:05 am:
===Geez, why can’t the parents take their kids to school?===
Both of my parents worked when I rode the bus. You people just have no clue what it’s like to live miles from town. Ignorance is a flimsy excuse for stupidity.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:06 am:
===Inconvenience is not a good enough reason to increase taxes to pay for everything for everybody ==
Considering that you are drawing a taxpayer salary, I wouldn’t be all that harsh on kids who have to ride the bus if I were you.
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:12 am:
The $26B states assistance package will undoubtedly pass Congress. This will ameliorate some of these budget cuts, and the bailout will be highly touted by the Democrats in the election this year.
However, doesn’t this really only kick the can down the road about six months? What then? As the link (State Bailouts and Constitutions) above discusses, this bailout at best allows Illinois to skirt its constitutionally mandated responsibility to have a balanced budget.
I wholeheartedly agree with lakeview, we need to have a tax increase and cut out the “stuff” we expect government to fund. Downstater is also correct that everyone needs to share the pain, especially public service employees who have been partially shielded from this recession because of government largesse.
A “Grand Compromise” is just sitting there for a real leader to run with. Taxpayers and Republicans understand that increased government revenues MAY be required. But this leader has to take a page from the Chris Christie playbook and set a goal to bring the state budget into balance without a tax increase. If a good-faith effort is made to cut the size of government, then and only then, can a case be made for increased taxes. Support for new taxes or fees may surprise the elected elite, but only if they show a concerted effort to reign in spending.
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:16 am:
Look Stones, Brady would be governing under the worst conditions ever in Illinois history. He, therefore, would get and deserves some slack. Quinn got some slack, and deservedly so, until he started he messing up and making matters worse.
At some point in his term Brady is going to have to own the way things are in the state, especially when/if he makes decisions and doesn’t learn from them and improve from them.
George, Quinn is the governor. It was his job to get the GA, which is controlled by his party, on board with what he was trying to do, particularly through the leadership of both chambers. Obama had pelosi and reid on board. Also, as governor it was his job to reach out to the republicans, be inclusive and give them what they wanted. If nothing else, Quinn needed to work with Madigan to get the dems to vote for a tax increase. He failed on all accounts. *Pelosi and Obama have apprently led some of the House dems to slaughter over healthcare reform. If it (healthcare reform or a tax increase etc) is so right and has such moral imperative implications, then leading some House dems to slaughter is totally justifiable. it was Quinn’s job to sell Madigan on that. Quinn had two years back to back to make the sale. Some U.S. House dems are going to lose their seats come November. To what extent its solely because of healthcare remains to be seen, but it will be a culmination of things. And voting for healthcare reform certainly won’t help dems who were in already precarious positions. At the end of the day Pelosi and Obama demonstrated the necessary leadership to get what they wanted done! So, at the end of the day if Quinn really wanted the tax increase, it was up to him to get it and exhaust every resource at his disposal to get it.
*Let’s be honest it was Pelosi was the driving force in getting House dems votes.
- Downstater - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:18 am:
Cincinnatus - WOW! Very well said. I hope Bill Brady’s team reads these comments.
- dave - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:19 am:
The $26B states assistance package will undoubtedly pass Congress. This will ameliorate some of these budget cuts
Get your facts straight. IL’s budget has already assumed that the state aid would pass. These cuts are not connected to, nor will they be rolled back because of, the $26B state aid package.
And no, this won’t have any impact on the “balanced budget” either.
I wholeheartedly agree with lakeview, we need to have a tax increase
Did Cincinnatus really just say that the State needs a tax increase?!?!
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:20 am:
==Geez, why can’t the parents take their kids to school?==
These comments that show a depth of ignorance that cannot be addressed in a blog comment. But here are a couple of explanation.
Most people work 8 hour days (and will drive appx. 1/2 hour to get to work). The school day is 7 hours. You do the math.
The kids school is in the opposite direction of where the parents work.
The family owns one car.
The family has one parent.
The school district consolidated, the school in town has closed or only serves a couple of grade levels and the kids go to a school 30 miles away.
I could go on.
- Birdseed - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:36 am:
“An additional 22-percent decrease will make us seriously consider our transportation budget.”
What a novel idea….. Maybe a 22% cut in the administrative budget will make them “seriously consider” their administrative budget.
- KeepSmiling - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:38 am:
I’m going to give Quinn some credit here.
Based on my admittedly light tracking of Congressional legislation (HIRE bill, T-LU extension just thru Dec 2010, proposed FREIGHT legislation), it seems that Quinn is cutting in areas where he may believe that Illinois stands to soon gain additional fed money - money that will at least partially offset his cuts. So even if a rural school’s response in the short term is to “raid” their education fund to cover bus transportation costs, the funds may soon be replenished. Quinn just met with Obama, right? Just maybe Quinn’s on top of things and is making strategic decisions. Ha. I said maybe.
Not only does federal money kick the state-tax-increase-can down the road, the delay may help it get passed. Tax increases for education and healthcare - ehh - that gets support from some. Raising taxes to ensure local match for transportation projects big and small, transit and highway, airports - that gets support from others.
- Confused - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:41 am:
Cincinnatus @ 11:12 am
What an amazingly great post. I have little (read: no) faith that either Dem or Rep leadership (using the term lightly) will follow it. But, every word is dead-on correct.
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:41 am:
Hey, dave,
Look back at my several posts about the Illinois budget fiasco and you will see that I accept the proposition that a tax increase MAY be required. The big if is the good-faith attempt to do so without a tax increase.
The clowns in Springfield need to squeeze the budget until blood appears. The political elite need to lead our citizens to understand that government cannot do everything, nor should they even try. This point needs to be understood no matter if the state is flush with cash, or not.
I stand corrected on the fact that the budget assumes a federal bailout. I also find it shocking that they made this assumption many months ago, before the bill was moving through Congress. This fact alone should highlight how irresponsible Quinn and the GA are. I used to think they were wimps, now I think they are Wimpy:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zprtNK6Ve-A/Sgm2-Rcu9-I/AAAAAAAAABA/ZRdOI_DGn9A/s1600-h/wimpy.jpg
- the Patriot - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:44 am:
Pat Quinn has already cut transportation 50%. The state is 6 months behind on payments and will probably never make those payments.
Rich, can you ask Quinn a few follow ups?
1. Are they going to get schools catch up on transportation payments.
2. Is he going to cut 42% and then only make 1/2 of the payments like he has in the last several years. Because if you cut me back to 68% and I only get half of that, it ends up being a 66% cut.
If he cuts the budget 42% and sends all payments on time, most schools will net about an 8% increase over what the actually recieved last year.
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:57 am:
- Confused - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:41 am:
“What an amazingly great post.”
- Downstater - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 11:18 am:
“Very well said. I hope Bill Brady’s team reads these comments.”
Thanks. You have, however, proven that sometimes a blind squirrel will get a nut.
And since I am nothing much more than a whore, if Brady’s got the money, I got the time…
- Pat Robertson - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 12:47 pm:
==Don’t mourn, organize - especially with this governor ==
That’s what merit comp employees are doing. And it will cost the State, and not just money.
- the Patriot - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 1:11 pm:
This is a fast one on the IEA by Quinn. They endorsed him right after he said no cuts to state aid then a couple weeks after the endorsement he is cutting millions from education.
Transporation is mandated by statute. If you don’t pay for it, it will come out of the general fund, AKA daily state aid which is where the teachers get paid and what he committed not to cut.
The IEA in all of its intellectual wisdom was duped by an accounting trick.
I sort of admire Quinn for pulling a fast one on the IEA. I just hope he was savey enough to get the donation check cashed before he cut them off at the knees.
- girllawyer - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 1:24 pm:
“Why can’t parents just take their kids to school?” Unbelievable. I guess you don’t know this Belle but not every parent has a gassed-up SUV they can load the kids in to drop them at school on their way to the gym or the salon. For many parents it would be an impossibility - not just an “inconvenience”. But maybe those kids don’t need an education.
- Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 1:26 pm:
It’s just like the local referendums. Eliminate what will get attention from the people who will then accede to a tax increase.
Then all will be well and there will be business as usual.
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 1:31 pm:
I believe a few of these could help downstate bus problems:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7927775/Motoring-enthusiast-builds-367mph-bus.html
- zatoichi - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 2:13 pm:
Ravenswood, you need to get out to the smaller towns. I grew up in the west Chicago suburbs and schools were usually close by with public transportation easily available. I have also lived in smaller towns where the consolidated schools were 10-12 miles away because the local schools closed due to facility costs and dropping census. Transportation is a monster problem for rural areas. Not uncommon for a school to be 10 miles away and parent’s work to be 15 miles in the opposite direction from their home. Be in a smaller town and have the major employers make significant changes or leave and suddenly the perfect setup becomes a huge headache that could not be planned.
Cinci talked about the GA squeezing the budget until blood appears. That will likely happen very quickly once the school year gets going, property taxes pushes come, and various programs start closing due to cuts/cash flow. Cut those Aging programs that help seniors stay in their homes and provide food. When several bad situations happen watch the screaming.
Up to now it’s mostly talk. Reality is setting in.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 2:34 pm:
Wow, is it possible a lot of people don’t know that Illinois is an agricultural state? Ravenswood, your comment has to be in the running for the most ridiculous of the year.
I rode the country bus as a kid. One bus packed with K-12 farm kids (some of the big kids had already lost their licenses) barreling down gravel roads with Ivan the bus driver.
Ivan used to calm his nerves between the morning and afternoon shifts with some boilermakers at the quonset hut bar over the county line. Don’t blame him. The big kids used to steal the little kids lunches and chuck apples and grapes at him while he was driving.
- Stones - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 2:46 pm:
Will County: You make a valid point. I suppose my conclusion on Brady is based on what I have seen and heard from him to this point. It’s pathetic that these are the two realistic choices that we have given ourselves for Governor.
As we sit today I still don’t know which of two evils I will vote for.
- Confused - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
Stones @ 2:46 pm
“As we sit today I still don’t know which of two evils I will vote for.”
Me, too. I am leaning towards the devil I don’t know right now, but not too excited about it.
- cassandra - Thursday, Aug 5, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
I could tell the story about how during my childhood in very rural New England I walked 1/2 mile each way twice a day from 1st through 6th grade. That’s two miles a day, 5 days a week.
I could also note that I am not nor have I ever been fat. There are always tradeoffs.
Although we in Illinois love to put folks in jail, we should pay attention to the costs
of institutionalizing elderly felons, many of whom are unlikely to be dangerous to the community. And can we discharge an 80 year old with severe medical problems who has completeled his sentence but has no place to go. Probably not. Japan is already experiencing this problem with its elderly prison population.They become (expensive) state wards for life.
The challenge is to start reducing the prison population now, not wait until the choice is to discharge a bunch of really sick old people into the streets…or not.
Alas, after the poorly executed early release problem our Pat is unlikely to pursue a reduction in the prison population. If it’s up to him,
the many richly compensated government and private industry stakeholders in Illinoiis’ huge prison system have nothing to fear.
- chicago 7 - Friday, Aug 6, 10 @ 10:12 am:
Its hard to tell if this gov and his cronies are shiftless or too cute or just careless. A bunch of MC employees are looking at paycuts, and quinn, stermer, lavin, hannig and the other geniuses who run idot are taking the head of HOUR - who gave herself a midnight raise just befor quinn came in and who was given that job by blago - and makinf her deputy chief of staff. Who are they kidding? These blagohacks are still running the show and still making real good money, while the MC employees pay the orice.