School vouchers control government spending
I’m a Downers Grove homeowner with no kids and never will have them. I am paying taxes to send everyone else’s kids to school. My parents sent all of their kids (five of us) to private school and paid these taxes for all the public school kids. I don’t know how they did it. As an adult I see how unfair it was and still is.

Recently we received our latest property tax bills. Inside that bill is a little brochure that shows 72.53 percent of taxes going to schools. There is nothing in the Constitution that says we are guaranteed a public education or are required to pay for someone else’s. This was a program started back in the 1800s and pretty much finalized by 1918.

One way to control this is to support school vouchers. Parents with kids in private schools deserve a break. They should not be paying for two school systems. Vouchers will lower taxes, by allowing parents to send kids to private schools which run more efficiently, and which also consistently have higher test scores. These students would be taken out of the red tape inefficient, teacher union run public school system. Fewer students in public schools means lower taxes for everyone.
Another way to control taxes is tax families according to the number of kids in the public school system, and based on which grade their in for the year being taxed.

The last way I can think of controlling taxes, is by changing building codes in Downers Grove to permit smaller homes on the lots then are allowed now. Keeping home prices reasonable is going to lead to more reasonable taxes. Let parents with lots of kids build their dream mansions in Naperville.  McMansions are bad for the people of Downers Grove that wish to preserve the charm and quaintness of the neighborhoods as well as keeping Downers Grove prices affordable enough that a person who grew up here could actually afford to move in and purchase a home.
Whatever the method, something needs to be done to change how public schools are funded to shift the tax burden to those that are getting the benefit for their kids. This has to be changed on a state level. Support people that run for office that are in favor of supporting a fair way of paying for schools and who support vouchers.
Donald Schwartz, Downers Grove

Citizens duty-bound to resolve global warming
In this economic depression, it may seem superfluous to talk of global warming. Downers Grove has not ignored this issue, however; already, the Village Council decided to go paperless in its meetings.

However, much more needs to be done. If we do not act now to reform, strengthen and pass the Waxman Bill through Congress, we will be to leaving generations after us the consequences of our inaction.

We who have the power and foresight to prevent such devastating effects on our planet must not shy away from our responsibility. This bill is too important and this planet too fragile for Congress to not get it right the first time. The climate crisis is real, threatening homeowners along the Gulf with intense hurricanes and rising seas, farmers in the Midwest with worsening droughts and firefighters in the West with deadly blazes.

But we can still rescue the climate. To stop global warming, this Waxman Bill must include real reductions in global warming pollution instead of loopholes like carbon offsets or money for the coal industry. And it should stay away from unproven, expensive technology like carbon capture and storage.

Let’s use what we have, the wind and sun, and become once again the true innovators of the world. We are duty-bound as citizens to enlist Congress in this imperative, to get this right, because our future and our children’s future depend on it.

Julia Franzen, Downers Grove