Don't give forum to political organization

I am hoping you will read your Thursday article about the 2019 Illinois Report Card, which states that numbers stating how much a school district spends cannot be taken at face value. "it's not about equality but equity - spending according to each student's needs."

I was appalled when I read the Oct. 29 guest view by Chris Talgo, an editor at the Heartland Institute located in Arlington Heights. This guest view, and your highlighting it, allowed Mr. Talgo to make unfounded and biased statements against the Chicago Teachers' Union, National Louis University and New Trier High School.

Is Illinois "the most union friendly state in the union," as Mr. Talgo writes? He continues "perhaps this was a contributing factor to the socialist rhetoric bandied about" in these three institutions. He ends his article by saying, without any facts to back it up, that Chicago Public Schools are failing in their mission in providing a high-quality education for their students.

Earlier in the article, he says he is an unbiased observer.

Please, Daily Herald, check up on the facts. Donors to the Heartland Institute reportedly include the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, Microsoft, General Motors, Comcast, Reynolds American, Philip Morris, Amger, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lily, liquor companies and an anonymous donor who has given over $13 million in the last five years.

The Heartland Institute calls itself a libertarian institution, theoretically antigovernment, but rest assured, they and their funding partners work every day to push their corporate agendas in every level of American life, lobbying government agencies on all kinds of issues. Do we need our daily newspaper to promote the biased anti-union, anti-public education rhetoric espoused in that Guest View article?

Juli Cicarelli

Arlington Heights