Make a difference in Big Hollow now

As a resident of the Big Hollow school district, I see our election day as an opportunity to get our schools back on track. We have been derailed by exploding growth and tax-cap legislation, and this is our chance to make a huge impact on our children's education, and future.

Illinois' track record on funding education is abysmal. We're in the bottom five of 50 states in state-level funding of education and rely disproportionately on local property taxes. That's one of the contributing factors to the kind of crisis that has befallen the Big Hollow school district, where exploding student enrollment has combined with tax-cap legislation that limits how much revenue growth is available year to year to create spiraling operational deficits. The gap between the "have" and "have not" school districts gets wider and wider, and my fear is, we will not be able to get back on track to the "have" side of the gap. How long can our children do without a basic, quality education, similar to what we all had as children?

Clearly it's time for the Big Hollow community to take action to get our school, and our community, back on track. The responsibility is ours. Blaming the state may be valid, but it doesn't get us what we want: a quality educational experience for our children now. A quality image for our community, now. A boost in a terrible housing market, now. Big Hollow is asking for a $10-million cash infusion to bring Lake County's highest class sizes back to acceptable levels…to restore art, music and computer classes…to update curriculum that is 10-15 years old. Please vote "yes" for the Big Hollow referendum and make a difference in your community now. More information is available at www.supportbighollow.org.

Jill Wright

Round Lake