A coalition of 40 influential business, labor and education organizations today kicked off a sweeping campaign to improve the quality of education in Illinois. The Network 21: Quality Schools for Stronger Communities Coalition is targeting both legislators and the general electorate with an urgent call to action.
A coalition of 40 influential business, labor
and education organizations today kicked off a sweeping campaign to improve
the quality of education in Illinois. In advance of the November elections
for governor and the largest turnover in legislative offices in a decade,
the Network 21: Quality Schools for Stronger Communities coalition
is targeting both legislators and the general electorate with an urgent call to
action.
More than 400,000 Illinois public school students are not meeting Illinois
Learning Standards, and this public education crisis threatens to undermine the
future of the state, coalition members said.
"After years of debating reforms to Illinois'
public education problems, too few of our students learn basic skills, and too many
children attend high-poverty schools with inadequate resources," said MarySue
Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, an organizer of Network
21. "Only 60 out of Illinois' 900 high poverty schools are making sure students
make the grade. We have an appalling achievement gap and now is the time for
action."
Former Gov. Jim Edgar applauded the effort. "I've worked on this issue
for two decades and, right now, there is nothing more important to the future of
Illinois than Network 21's effort to improve the quality of education for all of
our students," Edgar said.
Network 21 kicked off its
campaign — "Quality Schools for Stronger Communities" — today with a news
conference at Chicago's Nia Elementary School on the city's Near West Side, and
in the Prairie Hills School District in south suburban Hazel Crest. As part of
the campaign — starting on the first week of school in Chicago and across most
of Illinois — coalition members will deliver more than 500 lunchboxes
(made by Illinois-based Thermos Corp.) filled with education reform
information to legislators and key decision makers. They also
distributed more than 20,000 brochures
to concerned parents,
teachers and voters throughout Illinois. The effort will be supported by a
paid advertising campaign before the November election and appearances by
Network 21 members at numerous candidate forums across the state.
New Federal legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act,
adds urgency to Network 21's campaign, mandating that 100 percent of the state's public school students meet Illinois Learning
Standards by 2014. Currently, only about half of students in high-poverty schools meet
those standards.
Specifically, Network 21 is calling for legislators to support the
following to fix public school performance problems:
- Quality and
accountability reforms , including
improved teacher quality and mentoring programs, expansion and improvement of
early childhood education, and partner programs between high quality and
under-performing schools.
- Funding
reforms
, including increasing basic minimum funding for each student, providing
a reliable and predictable state funding stream, targeting resources to
poor students by changing the way the state funds schools in "poverty" and
reducing the reliance on the property tax to fund schools.
For more information visit www.network-21.org or
call 312/922-5616.
Contact Information:
Kim Grimshaw Bolton: 312/863-6020
Dan
Shomon: 312/578-0450
Tara Dunne: 773/348-3677
Cell: 773/339-0476