It's easy to be jaded about public schools

It's hard not to be cynical about Illinois public schools. Contacting state legislators about problems does no good. Most are beholden to the Illinois Education Association, the teachers unions and other political action committees funded by various education "associations" including school business officials, school administrators, school boards - the list of these "associations" goes on and on. See chrisjenner.org/SchoolAssociations.htm.

We can't expect the courts to address any wrongdoing. It's not that wrongdoing isn't happening. Courts know if they find one school district guilty of wrongdoing, it will open the floodgates because hundreds of districts are guilty of the same wrongdoing.

One example started in downstate Jersey County. The entire story is at thechampion.org/article.asp? id=7404.

The group investigating their school district found 250 Illinois school districts that had sold a total of over $3 billion of school construction bonds without voter approval or board action. In many cases, voters had rejected a building referendum, but the bonds were sold anyway.

Closer to home, a taxpayer sued Northwest Suburban High School District 214 for awarding a large energy contract without putting it out to bid. The Illinois Energy Consortium, another creation of public school "associations," says their business model doesn't include bidding on contracts.

Illinois public schools have become an entrenched cartel of organizations with two purposes - preserving the status quo and relentlessly fleecing taxpayers to pump endless gobs of money into a system that as neither effective nor high quality, as the Illinois Constitution requires.

This will not get fixed until there is outrage, until enough people figure out that all the money pouring into Illinois public schools is not resulting in educated children.

Chris Jenner

Cary