This is IEA President Ken Swanson. Surprisingly good news out of Springfield today. As you may have heard, Gov. Quinn has called for an income tax increase to fund public education, to prevent the kinds of mass layoffs, program cuts, and devastation to public education that we’re hearing about every day in the news.
We applaud Gov. Quinn’s courage in calling for an income tax increase so that we can have quality public education throughout Illinois. Now, it’s not a complete answer. HB174 as passed by the Senate last spring is a more comprehensive bill that addresses not just funding of public education, but the state’s structural deficit, and can adequately fund other elements of state government, because we need a solution that doesn’t just save our schools, we need a solution that saves our state.
So, please support Gov. Quinn’s call for the income tax increase for education, but join us in calling for a comprehensive solution so that we can save our schools and save our state.
Let me talk for a moment about Sen. Brady, who has been criss-crossing the state on a platform of ‘we can cut our way out of this crisis’. No, we can’t Senator. Gov. Quinn has shown today that it takes courage, and it will take a revenue increase, to turn this state around, to stabilize our crisis, and put us on a path to recovery.
Sen. Brady, yours is a non-starter – stop it. Acknowledge the reality that we need a revenue increase for public education and for other essential state services.
On April 21st, we’re going to have a lobby day in Springfield, the likes of which I hope we’ve never seen before. I am counting on thousands of you to be here to deliver the message to the state legislature that we need a comprehensive solution that addresses public education and addresses other state needs so that we can together save our schools and save our state.
Be here on April 21 and help us deliver that message. In the meantime, please appreciate what Gov. Quinn has put forward today and acknowledge that it’s a great step in the right direction for public education everywhere across Illinois.
Thank you. Have a good day.