Give pay increase to Chicago schools

State Sen. James Meeks and a group of church leaders recently proposed that parents of Chicago public school children boycott the first day and more of school to bring attention to the lack of state funding for the Chicago Public School system. Yet he somehow missed focusing any attention on the automatic 12 percent pay raise for members of the Illinois Senate that goes into effect this week, a rather large sum of money that could easily have been earmarked for the Chicago Public Schools.

Sen. Meeks sadly seems perfectly willing to allow CPS students to be the pawns in the CPS funding crisis while he and the other state legislators line their already bulging pockets with an undeserved boost to their own personal income.

It seems to me that instead of making the suburbs foot the bill for taking on the cost to educate Chicago public school students if they try to enroll in the suburbs and for the entire state to pay for the busing for those students, Sen. Meeks would be better advised to fight to deny the Illinois legislative pay raise in favor of putting those funds toward the Chicago public school system.

It may not totally equalize the $10,000 vs. $17,000 CPS vs. suburban student total but it surely would narrow the gap. And it would help prove that Sen. Meeks is willing to put his money where his rather large mouth is.

Richard Reuter

Naperville