Making a consistent statement

Assuring private schools are on par with public on corporal punishment sends an important message

Illinois schoolchildren deserve equal protection under the law no matter where they are getting their education.

In that light we support passage of HB 4175, which would outlaw corporal punishment from being used on students in private K-12 schools. It would put private school students on a par with their peers in the Illinois public schools, who have been free from the fear of school-based corporal punishment for 30 years, since the legislature banned it in 1994.

Most suburban private schools have already self-banned corporal punishment, and HB 4175 would only serve the purpose of keeping them from changing their minds. In downstate Illinois, however, the practice remains more widespread.

Pastor Calvin Lindstrom of Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights told our Jake Griffin that CLA hasn’t used physical punishment on students for at least 15 years. “We did not want our teachers to be liable,” Lindstrom said, adding the last time the school paddled a student, a parent called police.

Still, Lindstrom doesn’t favor the law, saying the state shouldn’t interfere in what amounts to an agreement between parents and a private school.

It’s true that private schools are private for a reason — parents want their children to get certain values that they all understand and agree with. In that sense, even private schools who have abolished corporal punishment on their own might resent interference from the state, and we get that.

Backing up that school of thought, the 79-26 House vote was essentially along party lines, where many Republicans voted against the bill largely because they consider it an overreach by state government.

But in today’s world, allowing private school teachers and administrators to hit kids crosses a line. As a society we’ve worked hard to show that behavior can be taught and encouraged without violence. Moreover, studies have shown that punishment is not meted out evenly in the U.S., with students of color and disabled kids getting a disproportionate share.

State Rep. Margaret Croke, a Chicago Democrat, drafted the 4175 legislation after seeing an uptick of public schools in neighboring states such as Missouri reinstituting the practice.

Illinois has not seen a similar rising interest, Croke said. However, Test Prep Insight, a website that offers reviews of test prep courses, language learning products and professional exams, claims that their survey of 3,000 parents nationwide shows 49% of parents in the U.S. are choosing a more authoritative parenting style. In Illinois, that number rises to 56% of parents, they say.

In passing this legislation, Illinois would once again be an outlier. At present, corporal punishment is legal in all private schools in the nation except New Jersey, Iowa, New York and Maryland. Currently, corporal punishment is permitted in public schools in 18 states, mostly in the South.

And the COVID pandemic didn’t help turn the tide: Researchers found that the pandemic created a new, higher level of student misbehavior in 2021-22, compared with 2019. A U.S. Department of Education survey in 2022 showed 84% of respondents agreed the pandemic negatively affected students’ behavioral development, and nearly six out of 10 public schools reported “increased incidents of classroom disruptions from student misconduct” and 48% reported increased “acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff.” About half reported more “rowdiness outside of the classroom.”

Still, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Association of Pediatrics are both calling for a ban on corporal punishment in all schools. Experts say physical punishment of children does not create the behaviors they want to see in school, and that positive reinforcement, and access to therapy and mentoring works far better.

Thirty years after the legislature declared public school students to be “hands-off,” private school children deserve the same level of care and consideration. We urge the state Senate to pass this bill, and for Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign it.