Gov. Rod Blagojevich contends that Illinois school districts could save tens of millions of dollars annually if he controls the purchasing of their supplies. But many local school officials say they already can buy through an agency he oversees, but they don’t because it isn’t worth it.
That is just one of many flaws critics say they have found in Blagojevich’s ambitious plan to overhaul the state’s education apparatus by stripping authority from the State Board of Education and shifting it to a new Cabinet level agency under his direction.
Blagojevich used his annual State of the State address to the legislature last week to rail against the state education agency that he called unresponsive, wasteful and a “Soviet-style bureaucracy.” In blunt language, he blamed the board for a host of problems, including limited dollars flowing into classrooms, lagging student test scores and an avalanche of rules and regulations that has buried school administrators.
But a wide cross-section of school officials around the state said that the case against the board that Blagojevich laid out is riddled with distortions and displays a lack of understanding about who is responsible for making sure school money is spent wisely and children are learning.
In making his case that the board was incompetent, Blagojevich said only 46 cents of every school dollar in Illinois is used on classroom instruction. But school spending priorities are set by local district officials and not by the board, critics pointed out.
Blagojevich attacked board bureaucrats for writing 2,800 pages of rules that districts are required to follow. But the rules were composed only to enforce laws mandated by the General Assembly, the critics stressed.
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Another broadside from the governor involved the recent release by the board of school report card data that was marred by 34,000 errors and led to the erroneous declaration that hundreds of schools were academically deficient. The errors, however, were made by local school districts, not the board, which simply compiled the data it received.
Blagojevich also blasted the board for paying the top 8 percent of its staff an average salary of $90,000 annually. The governor failed to mention that the average salary for the top one-third of his staff was $90,351 per year, state records show.
Some school administrators predicted that the governor’s program would weaken local control of schools, cost districts money, create more bureaucracy and do nothing to benefit children.
`Power trip’
“I think the guy is on a power trip,” said Greg Merrill, principal of Kankakee’s Mark Twain Elementary School, who predicted the proposal would do nothing to streamline the state education bureaucracy.
The state board oversees an $8 billion annual budget and sets broad educational policies on student testing, teacher certification and curricula matters. The nine members of the panel, all gubernatorial appointees, select the state superintendent of education. All of the current members were in place when Blagojevich took office.
On Friday, Blagojevich told the Tribune editorial board that his plan would allow more money to flow into classrooms, enabling schools to boost student performance on achievement tests.
“In the current form there is a barrier to being able to reform and make schools better,” he said. “And until we make a dramatic change with the state board, that barrier will continue to exist.”
Blagojevich contends he can save schools $500 million over four years by setting up a centralized purchasing system, which would leverage buying power to negotiate steep discounts on everything from glue to automobiles. But the state already offers such a service to districts through the Central Management Services Department, which Blagojevich oversees.
Most districts, however, do not participate in the program because they find it more expensive to buy small-ticket items, such as paper, pens and pencils. Additionally, many school officials say they prefer to spend local property tax dollars to support local businesses.
Michael Rumman, director of Central Management Services, said schools don’t participate mainly because the program is designed for bulk purchases. The new program, he said, would offer deals in smaller quantities. Still, Rumman acknowledged that the governor’s $500 million savings claim would be realized only if nearly all of the state’s 891 districts participated and each one was able to lop 5 to 15 percent off the cost of buying supplies.
Many local school officials say they aren’t convinced.
“History has proven that state purchasing agreements haven’t proven the most efficient,” said Donna Baiocchi, executive director of Ed-Red, a group that represents 110 districts in Cook, Lake and DuPage Counties. “I don’t see how we’re going to redirect a half a billion dollars when you’re talking about Elmer’s glue and pencils.”
There is a strong tradition of local control of schools in Illinois, and the governor said his program would not upset that despite several aspects that would require or encourage the pooling of functions.
District officials decide how much they will spend on schools and where they will spend it. They pick their own textbooks. They select their own reading and math programs. And they decide how long the school day will be.
The state board has limited power and serves mainly to implement state and federal laws and dole out state and federal money.
Blagojevich dwelled on figures that show that less than half of every school dollar goes to classroom instruction. But he brushed over other data that show a large portion of the rest–31 percent–is dedicated to services like busing, testing, health and psychological services, counseling and social work, curriculum development and library services–functions that many consider vital to school operations.
More than 9 percent of school spending goes toward school construction and repairs.
“If the money is not going into the classroom, it’s not an Illinois State Board of Education problem,” said Pat Masterton, assistant superintendent in Addison School District 4. “What it comes down to is this state does not fund education.”
Rules required by legislature
Blagojevich also blamed the board for imposing so many rules it had created a “bureaucratic nightmare of biblical proportions.” But the board is required to write the rules by the General Assembly. When legislation was passed about the use of student protective eye gear, for example, regulations had to be drafted to implement the law.
Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), while keeping mum on Blagojevich’s reforms, said the over-regulation charge by the governor was a bum rap. “One of the things the governor talked about–the 2,800 pages of rules and regulations–is all part of laws passed by the legislature,” Jones said.
Board officials acknowledge that their operation is not flawless and concede that mistakes were made in some of the areas that the governor cited in his indictment of the agency.
Blagojevich took the board to task for failing to safeguard the health of students by allowing ammonia-tainted chicken to end up on school lunch tables in 2002. Board employees knew the poultry was foul but did little to stop its distribution. The board took no action until a Tribune investigation revealed the problem.
As for the recent report card debacle, board officials may not have been responsible for the errors but did not act quickly to correct them after they were discovered. Only after news reports surfaced about faulty information in numerous report cards did the board allow districts to make corrections, a process that could take months.
“We will acknowledge that our hands are not totally clean,” said Ron Gidwitz, a member of the State Board of Education and its former chairman. “We acknowledge we made mistakes. We are not perfect.”
Blagojevich had an uneasy relationship with the board even before he took office last year. While he was running for office, the board in 2002 appointed Robert Schiller as the state superintendent even though Blagojevich had asked it to defer action until after the election.
Schiller said Friday that he has never had a lengthy conversation with Blagojevich, though he has tried. He said he has sent countless e-mails to the governor’s staff, hand delivered letters and made many phone calls over the last year.
“I wanted to talk to him about the state of education in Illinois, and I wanted to share my thoughts and get his thoughts,” Schiller said. “But there was silence on his end. To be honest, I’m not sure his staff was sharing with him our efforts to meet.”
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Health plan stirs concerns
The state’s top educators also are worried about the governor’s plan to create a state-run $1-billion-a-year health plan for all current and retired school employees.
At present, districts manage and fund their own health care programs for current employees, but the benefits for retired employees–except those from Chicago–are covered by the state. The governor’s plan, supported by teachers unions, would shift the costs for retired employees’ health benefits to local school districts.
Glenn “Max” McGee, the former state superintendent of education who now runs Wilmette’s elementary schools, criticized the health plan, despite his ringing endorsement of Blagojevich’s overall reforms. “I don’t think it will be good for teachers,” McGee said.
As part of the reform package, the governor also floated a plan that would require schools to offer breakfasts if at least 40 percent qualify for free or reduced meals. About 300 schools in 100 districts would be affected. The federal government would pay for the food, but districts argue it would cost them far more than the $1 million the governor has set aside for the program.
“You’ll have to hire personnel who will have to pack the breakfast, be on duty when children are eating. Someone will have to clean up afterward,” said Amber Harper, superintendent of Leepertown School District 175 in central Illinois. “We are talking personnel costs.”
Schiller said he plans to stay out of the fray while lawmakers and educators debate the governor’s plan.
“It matters not that we are under siege,” he said. “We must carry on with the business of educating children. My job is to lobby for our children and make sure we do everything for them that is humanly possible.”