If you are like me, this week you searched for “Vision 2030.” You likely then had to change your search, because the chances are slim you have deep interest in Saudi Arabia’s ambitious efficiency and accountability efforts.
(That said, we could all aspire to fund “a government that is effective, transparent, accountable, empowering and high-performing.”)
Adding the word Illinois to the query delivers the intended result: information about what Capitol News Illinois called “the next school reform push.” CNI’s Peter Hancock said “organizations representing local school boards, superintendents, principals, district business officers and regional superintendents argue that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire landscape of public education has been dramatically altered, presenting new challenges and heightened scrutiny of public schools.”
That alteration is important to consider when reflecting on the impact of Vision 20/20, a report from the same groups that deserves credit for moving lawmakers toward adopting an evidence-based funding approach to channeling state revenues toward districts most in need. If we really look at public education as being fundamentally changed after March 2020, that arguably diminishes the weight placed on experience drawn from the before times.
Even COVID couldn’t alter some fundamental realities about public schools in Illinois. Our very best schools are among the best in the nation, but we are not absent from the other end of the spectrum. The difference quite often is money, and although the evidence-based approach aims to keep districts with local wealth from stockpiling state dollars, it remains true that the state can never pour in enough cash to level the field. This is true even when revenue projections are rosy.
Related is the geographic challenge. Schools in larger communities with bigger property tax bases will always have more students and more resources than those in less populated areas. And although it is possible to consolidate districts and draw lines to make sure there is no high school with fewer than 1,500 students, there’s no logic in doing so where kids would have to spend hours on the bus each day just to get to class.
Pandemic-era education illustrated the possibilities and problems of distance learning. You can give a Hardin County teenager a laptop and a WiFi connection and access to a Northern Illinois University dual-credit course, but that’s only one piece of a monstrous puzzle.
Still, striving for improvement is important. Go to illinoisvision2030.com and read for yourself what education leaders value. The report acknowledges these immutable realities and previews the coming debate on how to “fulfill the promise of public education in Illinois.”
Your elected officials have done the homework, but this assignment is for everyone who wants our children well prepared for their future.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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