Stooped under the weight of bags overflowing with evidence of today’s lessons — a collection of notes, binders and worksheets — they walk out of school baring the pressures of education.
They train their minds on reading, writing and arithmetic throughout the day, all the while maintaining classroom decorum. And after hours of sitting at a desk, asking questions and answering them, they go home and push through hours more work at the kitchen table.
Like the students they lead, educators pore over their homework, keeping in mind the standards set out for them. Only a school administrator’s success isn’t measured in letter grades and conduct marks — it’s gauged by an ability to implement a mounting wall of mandates while producing positive test scores and receiving little to no financial assistance along the way.
“There is a continuum of needs in education, and the one-size-fits-all approach has been changed (to address that). (Lawmakers) have begun to differentiate between programs,” said Michael Meissen, Glenbard Township High School District 87 superintendent. “But that changes the cost of education, too.”
With so many demands already stretching district budgets, Meissen said, leaders, whether federal or state, have to consider the full impact of their measures.
Where mandates rarely lack merit, they often lack financial support to fulfill new requirements.
“It’s not that (educators) don’t think these are the right goals,” said Warren Shillingburg, assistant superintendent for instruction in Westmont’s Community Consolidated School District 181. “But it’s the way they go about it. The lack of funding is a huge burden (for school districts).”
But the unfunded and underfunded mandates handed down to local school districts by well-meaning state legislators tax districts in more than a financial way. Shillingburg said there is often a logistical factor that impedes a district’s ability to implement new program requirements.
“It’s difficult to find the time to teach everything we’re required to teach,” he said.
“The problem is, there are only so many hours in the day,” said Peg Agnos, legistalstive director of lobbying group South Cooperative Organization for Public Education. “We have to start asking what we have to give up in instruction to meet these expectations.”
Among the most burdensome mandates educators focus on are No Child Left Behind, special education and transportation, all underfunded mandates with implications at the federal and state levels.
But the mandates go far beyond attempting to provide quality education, galvanizing the rights of minority populations and providing a basic service. They delve into character education, provide for counseling and psychological services for grief and conflict assistance, and call for both hearing and vision tests — all within the confines of the school day and district budgets.
Such mandates send many districts to their fund balances or reserves to stay afloat. Other districts, already operating on a lean budget, begin considering the removal some of the non-mandated programs offered.
And as districts attempt to balance the bottom line with mandates and curriculum, leaders often question why legislators aren’t following Illinois’ State Mandates Act, which is supposed to prevent legislators from passing mandates without proper funding available.
“In many cases, the education legislation we discuss and pass is in reaction to an ongoing public policy issue that requires action,” said Illinois’ Deputy House Minority Leader Brent Hassert, R-85th, of Romeoville. “Some mandates have been dictated by the federal government, like No Child Left Behind. We don’t just dream these things up.”
Still, many state leaders recognize there is an issue.
State Rep. Tim Schmitz, R-49th District, of Batavia, said he thinks it’s incumbent on the bill’s sponsor to ensure funding is available for proposed programs.
But he said the buck doesn’t stop there. Schmitz said the governor also has an opportunity to head off legislation lacking appropriations by using his veto power.
“There’s no room for unfunded mandates,” said state Sen. Martin A. Sandoval, D-12th District, of Berwyn. “We should work to close the loophole in that act, in order to not raise false hopes for the recipients of the alleged unfunded mandates.”
Meissen, the optimistic new leader of Glenbard, said he thinks there’s hope that issues with mandates can be ironed out. He said he thinks it will take communication from leaders in the education realm to articulate the impact.
Others aren’t so confident.
Clem Mejia, regional superintendent for the Kane County Regional Office of Education, said the only way to begin fixing the problems is to reconsider education’s current dependence on property tax revenue and examine the formula that dictates state funding allocations.
“Also, state legislators introduce thousands of bills,” he said. “At some point, someone has to say ‘stop.’”
