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Capital Improvements – Increase School
Construction Funding!
To date, our Illinois legislators have provided approximately
$3 billion in school construction grants, but Illinois’
schools still require capital investments. Despite
more than $3.6 billion capital investments in Chicago’s
public schools, our schools still need at least $6
billion worth of capital needs!
- Support SB 2317 – Sen. Miguel del Valle
proposes to authorize the State School Construction
Bonds of $1 billion and requires the State to provide
an annual capital plan, based upon a 5-year needs
assessment of school districts.
- Sustain funding for the School Construction Program.
Building A Vision For Our Schools & Neighborhoods
- A Facility Master Plan
- Require the Chicago Public Schools to develop
a comprehensive and strategic Facility Master Plan
for our schools and neighborhoods that provides
a fairer, more equitable distribution of capital
funds across Chicago and seeks to provide all students
and neighborhoods with equal educational opportunities
in world-class facilities.
- Require the Chicago Public Schools to provide
public building assessments of all its schools that
will be used to determine school construction need
and priorities that will guide the prioritization
process for the Facility Master Plan.
- This plan will creates public accountability
and re-establish public confidence in spending decisions.
School Closings – LSC Involvement in
Decisions & Planning
- Support NCBG’s Proposal to Reform the Chicago
Public Schools’ School Closing and Consolidation
Policy & to Increase Local School Council Authority
Over the Official Process.
- The Chicago Board of Education must include our
duly-elected Local School Councils in any potential
decisions to close and consolidate schools. CPS
must develop a fairer, due process policy for those
affected by school closings.
- CPS must consider the best interest of the students
by ensuring that children are sent to schools that
truly provide better educational opportunities,
as opposed to basing school closing decisions on
a sole factor such as student depopulation or a
school’s test score.
Increased School Funding – Education
Funding Must Be a Priority!
- Increase education funding!
- Reform Illinois’ tax policy system in order
to achieve this.
- State tax reform: Less reliance on property taxes,
more reliance on personal income taxes. Illinois’
wealthiest 1% makes $300,000 - $1.4 million in a
year, yet pay only approximately 4.6% of their income
to the State1. The poorest 20% pay approximately
13% of their on-average $8,900 annual income. Illinois
can afford tax reform.
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