April 1, 2011
Dear Neighbors,
It has been a busy and productive week in Springfield! After many people reached out to my office expressing concerns over the forced consolidation of schools, I am happy to report that those voices have been heard and forced consolidation has been taken off the table.
Yesterday, Illinois State Superintendent Christopher Koch said opposition to the idea came from all over — local school officials, lawmakers and voters. Koch offered assurance that forced consolidation is all but dead, and that the state would instead focus on incentives, saying, “I doubt there is going to be anything that comes out this year that gives that kind of direction, that says you have to consolidate.”
I want to assure you, that I will continue to fight to ensure that any measure that comes forward in the future that would force our local schools to merge and jeopardize the quality of education and property values in our area should require local taxpayers to approve the measure.
Carol Sente
State Representative, 59th District
At a public forum in March held at Vernon Hills High School, Representative Sente promised to seek an amendment to House Bill 1216 that would prohibit district consolidation without prior approval of the voters in the district to be consolidated. In other words, local voter control which would prevent forced consolidation. Further, Representative Sente promised that if such an amendment were not made to House Bill 1216 that she would withdraw as a co-sponsor and vote against the bill.
ReplyDeleteAfter this forum, I sent an email to Representative Sente confirming her promises and asking for a written response if she did not intend to honor them.
I received no response from Representative Sente.
As of today, no such amendment providing for local voter control has been made to House Bill 1216 and Representative Sente is still a co-sponsor of the bill.
Now, given that background, is it smart to rely on the statement in her April 1 message that "forced consolidation has been taken off the table"?
Further, how has forced consolidation been "taken off the table" and by whom?
The plain facts are that House Bill 1216 moves forward and Senate Bill 1324 is still pending.
I believe that forced consolidation is still very much "on the table" and that all parties must continue to make their opposition to forced consolidation known to their elected officials.
Lane Hasler