Funding equity lawsuit charges Illinois system unfair to minority students
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Chicago Urban League (CUL) has filed a lawsuit in state court against Illinois and the State Board of Education alleging the Illinois education funding system is unconstitutional because it discriminates against African-American and Hispanic students. The suit claims that the state is failing in its responsibility to properly fund education by relying too heavily on local property taxes to fund schools, which results in schools in poorer minority communities receiving substantially less funding than those in affluent white communities. CUL President Cheryle Jackson says the suit is needed to bring change after decades of inaction by lawmakers. “We have little faith in the legislative process,” she said. “Now we're taking this to the court and to the people who need to know how the state is hurting their child's future and robbing them of a right to a quality education.”
Source: Chicago Tribune, 8/20/08, By Monique Garcia
[Editor’s Note: CUL’s press release on the suit and the legal complaint are below. The Chicago Sun-Times reports at the next link that the Chicago Mayor Richard Daley declared the suit a “constructive” alternative to a student boycott championed by State Senator James Meeks to protest inadequate funding. The Sun-Times says the suit came “with an assist from City Hall and the [Chicago] Board of Education and was filed “to light a fire under an Illinois General Assembly that has spent decades dodging the school funding issue.” Mayor Daley reportedly believes “it just might work to give lawmakers political cover to stop passing the hot potato.” He and Sen. Meeks have pushed unsuccessfully for “a controversial tax swap that would shift the burden of funding public schools away from overburdened property owners and toward higher income taxes.”]
CUL press release
CUL complaint
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 8/21/08, By Fran Spielman