On the last day she could justifiably do it, Dawn Clark Netsch on Sunday called on the other candidates running for the Democratic nomination for governor to detail their plans for school funding in Illinois.
Netsch acknowledged that she knew that Roland Burris, whom a Tribune poll found was the front-runner in the race, planned to unveil his plan for education funding on Monday.
At a news conference Sunday morning, Netsch, currently the state comptroller, reiterated her education plans, which includes raising the state income tax to fund schools, giving back some money to those who pay property taxes, taking lottery money out of the school funding mix and establishing academic performance standards.
“I have called on my opponents to say, `Hey folks, where’s yours?’ ” Netsch said. “Don’t tell me you are going to somehow embrace all these component parts with a little more riverboat gambling money.”
Cook County Board President Richard Phelan, who is also running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said he has been discussing his plans for education throughout the campaign.
“Shame on Dawn,” Phelan said. “She is saying we are going to throw a billion dollars at a school system that does not work.”
Phelan said he does believe schools need more money, but doesn’t know how much or where it would come from. Before those issues are addressed, he said, the schools must be made to perform better.
On Monday, Burris, currently Illinois attorney general, will discuss school funding and cost-cutting, according to a spokesman for the campaign.
Secretary of state: Pat Quinn, running for the Democratic nomination for Illinois secretary of state, on Sunday called for the state to take a larger role in regulating school bus drivers and to begin using fingerprints to check drivers’ backgrounds.
Secretary of State George Ryan made a similar proposal Friday. In 1990, Ryan, who is running for re-election and is unopposed in the Republican primary, supported a similar fingerprinting proposal, but it was never passed by the General Assembly.
Ryan and Quinn both said they would ask that fingerprinting costs, about $36, be paid by the 25,000 school bus drivers who apply for driving permits.
Both plans would bring responsibility for checking bus drivers under the secretary of state’s control. Currently Ryan’s office, the State Board of Education, the Illinois State Police, bus companies and schools share responsibility for certifying bus drivers each year.
Ryan’s proposal would increase the list of crimes that would disqualify a person from driving a school bus.
Quinn’s proposal would add a “child safety advocate” to the secretary of state’s office.
A spokesman for state Sen. Denny Jacobs, who is opposing Quinn in the Democratic primary, said the secretary of state’s office should not have to add someone to look out for children’s safety when it should be doing it already.
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