This afternoon, I would like to share with you a few of my  thoughts observations on education finance.  I hope to be brief, yet earnest and provoking.

     In Illinois, as you know, we have a problem of disparity.  With the exception of one or two other states, Illinois has the greatest disparity per pupil in education spending in the United Stated.  Some schools in Illinois spend upwards of $16,000 per pupil per year, while others are left at the foundation level - $4,425.

     The fact that some schools are wealthy and others are poor is the natural result of the way in which Illinois funds elementary and secondary education.  However, this disparity is a horrible situation for many Illinois children.  I once heard an analogy I found to be quite helpful in understanding the problem of fiscal disparity.  The education system is like the interstate highway system.  If the United States relied on local governments to provide for roadways, some communities would have smooth and well-maintained roads.  In other communities, the roads would be adequate, but nothing special.  Still yet other communities would have no roads at all.  Education functions in much the same way.  In some communities, children are receiving the best education possible.  In other communities, children are receiving an adequate, but mediocre education.  In other communities, children are not receiving the education they need at all.

     The task before you today is a grand one - you will be deciding more than dollars and cents.  Your decisions will affect how people relate to their government - how people will live in relations to their fellow citizens.  Who will succeed and who will not.  As education dollars - and by extension educational opportunities - become concentrated in one area, the gap between rich and poor will widen.  We will be left with a well-educated elite and poor underclass.  Jobs and economic opportunity will flow to the well-educated, and the cycle of poverty will be perpetuated with the poorly educated.  It's hard for the cream to rise to the top when a significant number of children are disqualified before they get a chance to try.  This trend must be reversed.

     There have been recent inclinations leading toward an end to fiscal disparity.  Fourteen states have been forced by the court to overhaul their school finance systems.  Measures have been narrowly defeated in Congress to require states to fund education on an equal "per pupil" basis in order to receive any federal education dollars.

     In Illinois, however, the decision has been left to you.  In 1996, in its decision in The Committee v. Edgar, the state Supreme Court left this decision to the policymakers.  The ball is in your court.

     We need to work to fund education on an equal "per pupil" basis in the state of Illinois.  In addition, the foundation level should be increased from $4,425 per pupil, and a variation on the Hold Harmless allowance should be continued.  We must elevate the opportunities for everyone, but lower the opportunities for no one.

     As Illinois has already shown with the initiative of the Illinois FIRST program, the state is capable of fixing its problems.  Education funding is another area that requires the attention of the state government.  The time has come for the state to invest in the capacity of all children to learn.  A central question for the committee is whether it is time to eliminate, or substantially reduce reliance on, the property tax as a major source of revenue for public schools.

     The writer Philip Schlechty makes this point:  Our schools are now expected to prepare all children to function effectively in the world of ideas...to prepare all children to think critically and creatively...to prepare all children to be life long learners..."

     Something must be done to promote equality among schools.  Every student in the state of Illinois deserves to have the opportunities available to all other students in the state.  We must make sacrifices beneficial to the success all of Illinois' students.  We must education all of our children.  The future of Illinois is at risk; we have an opportunity and the responsibility to change the system, remove the risk, and save the future for all of Illinois' children.

     In order to ensure that Illinois' schools are second-to-none, we need to first make sure that each and every child in Illinois - from the city of Chicago to East St. Louis, from the collar counties to the Quad Cities, from the great plains of central Illinois to the rolling hills of southernmost Illinois - we must ensure that every child in Illinois is truly second-to-none.

     Thank you very much.