State Proposal On School Consolidation

I was always advised to never use the C-word in Fairfield. 

Consolidation.

Well, I’m gonna break that rule for the next few minutes….not because I want to…but because the state is forcing the conversation.

All of us in Fairfield pay two school districts. In fact, they are the largest part of our overall property tax bill. Each district has its own superintendent and their own fleet of buses….There’s lots of duplication.

A proposal called the School District Efficiency Commission is currently in a Senate committee for consideration. The proponents say they want a quarter of Illinois’ 850 school districts to merge. When I read that 200 school districts would go away if the measure became law-----I knew the poster child for this kind of state intervention would be…..Fairfield and Wayne County.

If the report is accepted, the reorganization of school districts would have to be placed on the ballots of designated school districts in the next general election---meaning as soon as November 2020.

I think, since the majority of the money going to our school districts comes from our property tax bills, we should decide. I fully and totally oppose a state mandated plan to consolidate our local school districts into a single unit district.

But, if Geff, Jasper, District 112 and New Hope voters independently decide on merging, that’s another thing. I think the chances of a pro-consolidation vote here are minuscule.

I just don’t see Wayne City or North Wayne being a part of the mix.

So, I have broken my rule and said the C-word.

If it comes down from Springfield, I’m agin it.