When do tax breaks trump education?

I’m writing to give you a student’s perspective about the issue of the potential extension of Sears tax breaks. To many lawmakers, we are just a number — a statistic if you will. To every one of those numbers, there’s a face attached; a face of a student working on getting into college and focusing on the rest of their lives.

I am one of those students. I am a freshman at Hampshire High. Our whole lives, we’re told about how high school would be the time of our lives, and with all the cutbacks it’s hard to truly feel that way. How would you feel going into work every day knowing you might find a pink slip waiting for you on your desk while the rich executives at Sears keep getting richer by not paying taxes?

If the citizens of Illinois have to pay, why shouldn’t Sears? Music has always been a major part of my life, and by losing $200 million over the next 15 years, who knows how long it will stay around in our schools?

Shouldn’t we be thinking about the long term here, about how there’s more than 20,000 students in District 300, and how by passing this amendment and cutting some potentially influential teachers and necessary materials, you’re already putting them at a disadvantage for college and the rest of their lives?

At what point does education become worth less than tax breaks?

Gaby Lehman

Pingree Grove