The proposal by Senate Bill 16 to redistribute state funding is a great idea. Senate Bill 16 has the potential to have a large impact on impoverished areas, which, based on our state’s current regressive public education funding system, receive less state and local funding than more affluent areas. I am in full support of Senate Bill 16’s proposal to “overhaul the state’s current regressive funding system into a progressive system,” where the majority of state funding will be “means-tested and distributed based on local ability to pay.”

Would it be truly detrimental to our school, or the education that Lyons Township provides, if some state and local funding were cut? The reality is no. I think that the football team could survive with one less uniform. I think that LT would still be able to offer a fantastic education with 15 fewer classes. I think that LT could still function on a day-to-day basis without the newest edition of Microsoft Office.

LT has made recent superfluous expenditures. Our school was not in need of a new cafeteria or a new Reber Center. Both were functioning perfectly. We live in a world of want, not a world of need. Let’s try to think beyond our own school.

There are schools that use cafeterias as gymnasiums or have gym class outside because they do not have the funding to build a gymnasium. There are schools where young children are never exposed to music. Some students will never learn to read basic notes or play an instrument, simply because their school lacks funding. There are schools without basic technology, such as desktop computers, or laptops, which today’s society would deem basic necessities. This is an injustice to the education of so many students. Unfortunately, these aren’t even worst case scenarios.

Some schools today operate without textbooks. How can students be expected to be productive and learn if the school doesn’t have the means to properly provide students with information? This doesn’t make sense. It is illogical that some schools can have four computer labs, new software and new facilities, while other schools in the same state are struggling to get by without any computers, a threatened library and no textbooks.

I understand that residents of the Lyons Township School District pay higher taxes to live in the surrounding communities such as Burr Ridge and Western Springs, just so their children can attend LT. I understand that these residents are paying more to receive the education LT has to offer, but at some point, the injustice is just too much.

We live in the United States of America, where the expectation is equality for all, and based on our current regressive education system, this “equality” for all is not possible. The only way to truly attempt to create equal academic opportunities is to regulate state funding and base it on need, not want.