Center for Tax and Budget Accountability

GROUPS CALL ON ELECTED OFFICIALS TO PRIORITIZE EDUCATION REFORM & A FAIR BUDGET

Civic, Business and Education Leaders Release

"Burnham Plan" for School Reform in Illinois

As the end to the Illinois legislative session rapidly draws near and legislators debate over how to fund schools and balance the state's budget, a bi-partisan group of civic, business and education leaders, including the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, released a major blueprint for reforming school quality and fiscal accountability on Monday, May 21.

The Burnham Plan for a World-Class Education is named for architect Daniel Burnham, whose visionary plans helped transform Chicago into a world-class city.

“While we debate the best way to fund Illinois schools, let’s not forget our top priority—to provide every child in our state with a top-quality education,” says Max McGee, former state superintendent and current superintendent of Wilmette School District. “We now have an historic opportunity to improve school performance and close the achievement gap in Illinois.”

The Chicago Tribune ran an editorial on Monday, supporting the Burnham Plan. The Tribune writes:

"This plan is worth reading -- and enacting. It's thoughtful, bipartisan, results-oriented and, most compelling, it's within reach." -- Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, 5/21/07

Read the Tribune's editorial: A Burnham Plan for schools.

From Protestants for the Common Good:

Ask our Leaders to Do the Right Thing: Support a Moral Budget!

It appears that our state legislative leaders are at odds with each other and with the Governor at how best to solve a mounting budget crisis, although they all recognize that far more revenue is needed for Illinois. We appreciate that this is a large problem, and we support the leaders as they struggle to decide how best to increase revenues in a fair and equitable way, and use those revenues to meet the rising costs of education and healthcare. These are large problems that need bold solutions, and we applaud the Governor, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House for their proposals to address these pressing issues.

We now respectfully ask that our leadership put their differences aside and come to the table and pull together a plan that increases tax fairness at the same time it ensures that every child has access to a good education and addresses the rising costs and the rising number of people without health insurance. These are the right priorities for our state, and we appreciate all that the leaders have done to bring these issues to the fore.

However, we ask that this budget be a moral budget. In order for that to happen it must ensure that those most in need are not hurt by an increase in revenues. We ask that the leaders include the following in any budget negotiation:

A long overdue increase (15%) in the cash grants provided to families working toward self-sufficiency through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.
An increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (at a rate commensurate with the increased tax burden for low income working families) or a Family Tax Credit to offset the increased burden to low- and middle- income families.

You can send a message to the Governor, Senate President and Speaker this week with two requests: First, we urge you to put aside your differences and come together on a single plan for increasing revenue. And second, budgets are moral documents! The state budget must include tax fairness for poor families.

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