Metro East Sun

State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Raymond) wants the General Assembly to make sure that when students return to school in the fall, they will have a more even playing field.

“As it stands now, Illinois has the most inequitable school funding system in the nation,” Bourne said in a press release recently. “That means students are essentially forced to play a ZIP code lottery that will determine whether they learn in classrooms equipped with an iPad per student or one where students share decades-old textbooks. This is a challenge we need to tackle as the Legislature, and there is bipartisan agreement that it must happen soon.”

Bourne said that countless hours spent on negotiations between the parties in the House and Senate have yet to change one fatal flaw in the education system: Most of the money for schools goes to Chicago, he said.

“When talking about state policies, I hear often from constituents that the money flows straight to Chicago while the rest of Illinois is forgotten about,” Bourne said. “We cannot let this happen again. The children of Illinois are too important. Understand though, I agree – the children of Chicago deserve a high quality education. Many of them are not afforded that opportunity under the current system. However, the children outside of Chicago, in central and southern Illinois, deserve the opportunity to get a great education too.”