Leslie B. Lipschultz, former president of the Highland Park District 108 Board of Education, has been named Education and Tax Policy Manager for the Metropolitan Planning Council.
Leslie B. Lipschultz, former president of the Highland Park District 108 Board of Education, and later, a top state legislative aide, has been named Education and Tax Policy Manager for the Metropolitan Planning Council.
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In that role, Lipschultz will act as coordinator of a broad-based civic coalition called Network 21: Quality Schools and Stronger Communities. The coalition, whose members range from the Illinois Farm Bureau to the Chicago Urban League to the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, is working to reform both the financing and accountability of the state's public schools.
Long-term, the coalition seeks to shift the school funding burden away from local property taxes to statewide sources, to enhance student performance and to require school accountability. Near term, Network 21 is working to raise the state-guaranteed "foundation level" — the minimum expenditure per-pupil — no matter how lacking a district's tax base.
"Leslie's strong background in education and legislative affairs makes her uniquely qualified to move these vital issues to the implementation phase," said MarySue Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, principal convener of the Network 21 coalition.
Barrett said Lipschultz also will pursue specific property tax reform proposals for Cook County, including a lowering of assessment levels on factories and apartment buildings to make them more competitive with the tax climate in the collar counties.
From 1993 to 2000, Lipschultz was chief of staff to former State Rep. Lauren Beth Gash (D-Deerfield) overseeing constituent services in the 60th District, coordinating the lawmaker's legislative agenda and handling outreach to both the media and the public.
Her background in educational issues includes a four-year term, from 1989 to 1992, on the Highland Park School District 108 Board of Trustees, serving in her final year as board president. During that time, and until 1995, Lipschultz also was active with ED-RED (Education, Research and Development) a consortium of suburban school districts that tracks and advocates on a variety of education-related legislative issues.
"I've had a great deal of hands-on experience with education issues," Lipschultz said. "I hope to put that experience to good use with MPC and Network 21. Only when all our children are able to fulfill their potential will our region and state fulfill theirs."
A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio with post-graduate study in comparative education at the University of Chicago, the Highland Park resident is married and the mother of three children, ages 23, 17 and 14.
At MPC Lipschultz succeeds William Burns, who recently accepted the position of vice president of program and field services for the Chicago Urban League.
Founded in 1934, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders committed to bringing diverse voices together and to building a better region in which to work, live and play.
The Council and Network 21 recently published a Guide to Education Reform for the 2002 Election Cycle.
Leslie Lipschultz can be reached at MPC's offices in the Loop at 312-922-5616, ext. 151.