Although it is easy to get wrapped up in the issues here at Illinois Wesleyan, McLean County is facing a daunting challenge.
In November of last year, residents voted against a tax referendum that led to a plan for cuts in the Unit 5 School District’s budget.
“If the levy is not approved, the district will need to reduce nearly $10 million from the budget in other areas to provide school safety and security and technology for students in the classroom,” WGLT reports.
Even though this situation might not directly affect Illinois Wesleyan students, many students teach and volunteer with Unit 5 schools, so preserving the budgets for the Unit 5 School Districts is important as ever.
These cuts would result in serious detriments to the school community’s offerings and overall functioning. The results of these cuts include the elimination of all junior high clubs, activities, and athletics and the cut of all “freshman” teams at the high school level. In addition, the cuts will also eliminate 5th-grade band/orchestra, and all field trips.
The list of implications continues, also including the reduction of outings for special education students and the number of administrators as well as the building and department budgets. This will serve to further exacerbate the issue of educational professionals already facing burnout and not being compensated fairly.
If this referendum is shot down once again, staff in Unit 5 will all have even more responsibility on their plates with less staff to distribute tasks to.
This also has the potential for a significant decrease in the quality of education.
In a brush fire survey including 400 interviewees, it was found that only 178 of the individuals questioned were aware of the referendum. Eighty-one percent of those familiar with the referendum were in solid support of the levy.
It is especially worth noting that those who will be most affected by these cuts will be from lower-income families, where free public offerings for children’s activities and educational extracurriculars are the main reason kids can get involved. In this sense, voting against the referendum “creates inequality,” as Pauline William, a teacher for 40 years and retired member of Illinois State University’s faculty.
What is particularly perplexing about the voters’ decision to reject this referendum last year is that this change will not result in additional tax dollars. The McLean County Unit 5 website explains the referendum is for the reallocation of money put towards building bonds to instead be put back into the education fund.
“I don’t understand why anyone would vote no on this referendum,” Dr. Elizabeth Haywood, Instructional Professor of Biology here at IWU, states. Haywood has a daughter currently enrolled in the Unit 5 school system and explains that more and more parents are looking to other educational institutions to enroll their children due to the effects of these cuts. One way in which she and other parents have attempted to preserve the quality of their child’s education is by applying to the Thomas Metcalf school at Illinois State University. However, there has been an increase in applications from 300-500 to 600. The acceptance rate is also exceptionally selective, as only approximately 40 students are admitted each year. This also exemplifies the perpetuation of inequality that this bill will result in, as only a few community members are able to look at these options due to financial constraints.
IWU students are heavily involved in the McLean County community, and by not voting to help the fellow schools in the area, it puts the rest of the community at a disadvantage. Every student deserves fair and quality education, and without the necessary funds, the education system in McLean county will become unsustainable.
All of the aforementioned cuts and reductions can be reversed if the voters of McLean county vote “yes” to the upcoming referendum on April 4th, reversing the decision made last November. Students who are residents and are eligible to vote in McLean county should be encouraged to look into the issue themselves and vote on this massively important piece of legislation that has serious implications for the McLean County community.