CHAPTER VII RECOMMENDATIONS Preceding chapters have described existing educational conditions in Illinois. They have not only pointed out the defects but have, in many cases, suggested remedies. They have also explained at a considerable length the reason for these recommendations. It seems desirable to bring together here at the close of this study the recommendations which have been scattered throughout various sections of the present account. To the recommendations specifically presented in the earlier portions of this study may well be added certain others, which, although not stated, are, by implication or as a consequence of principles laid down, contained therein. SECTION I. Abolish the present antiquated, unfair methods of apportioning state school moneys and adopt modernized, scientific methods which will recognize variations among the local school units as to number and qualifications of teachers and other school officers employed, length of school year, assessed valuation per full time teacher employed, local tax rate, aggregate days of attendance. SEC. 2. Establish 8 months (160 days) as the minimum school year. SEC. 3. Abolish school districts. SEC. 4. Establish the county as the local school unit. SEC. 5. In case school districts are retained, require a minimum county school tax of not less than ten mills, the proceeds to be distributed as an equalization fund among the school districts within the county, in accordance with the principles set forth in section I. SEC. 6. Extend to the counties the taxing and bonding powers now enjoyed by school districts. SEC. 7. In addition to all other state funds provide a state equalization fund to be apportioned among those counties which levy a county school tax of more than 10 mills, but are unable to produce thereby for every child of school age resident in the county a quota equal to the state average county quota per child derived from proceeds of such county taxes. SEC. 8. Empower and require the State Department of Education to fix and to modify from time to time, as conditions seem to warrant, the requirements and standards which counties must meet in order to receive quotas of state moneys. SEC. 9. Require county and all other school boards to prepare annually a budget of estimated school costs for the next succeeding year, such budget to be submitted to the proper authorities and used as a basis for levying taxes. SEC. 10. Make it unlawful for the state or for any school corporation to undertake any new type of educational project until previous provision has been made for a new and adequate fund for financing the same. SEC. 11. Require the counties to formulate and provide for the carrying out of a four-year county building program to provide new buildings and other new school property. SEC. 12. Remove all limits on local taxation. SEC. 13. Require the adoption of a serial bond policy by all political corporations empowered to issue bonds. SEC. 14. Abolish the office of county superintendent as an elective office and place the appointment of the county superintendent and the fixing of his salary in the hands of the County Board of Education subject only to limits as to professional qualifications and minimum salary fixed by the State Board of Education. SEC. 15. Establish an amount not less than that paid to city superintendents in first class city systems as the minimum salary of county superintendents. SEC. 16. Provide for every thirty rural teachers a supervisor or teacher helper of qualifications sufficient to entitle said supervisor to a salary not less than that paid to expert supervisors employed in first class city school systems, appointment to be made by the county superintendent upon the basis of qualifications fixed by the State Board of Education. SEC. 17. Provide a state graduated personal income tax upon the proceeds of which public schools and other educational institutions shall have first claim. SEC. 18. Provide a state severance tax, the proceeds of which shall be devoted to a state permanent common school fund. (Compare sections 26 and 27.) SEC. 19. Reserve to counties and to districts the sole right of levying taxes upon real and personal property and derive all state taxes from other forms of taxation, e.g.— taxes on incomes, corporations, natural resources and occupations, luxuries, etc. SEC. 20. Provide that all real and personal property shall be assessed by state officers, not local, and that assessment shall be upon 100 per cent valuation basis in accordance with the existing law. SEC. 21. Create a state interim legislative educational budget commission which shall prepare and recommend to each succeeding legislature an educational budget. SEC. 22. Provide for the raising by state taxation of funds sufficient to pay all state subsidies provided by law for all educational projects, positions, and institutions. SEC. 23. Provide that state tax rates for educational projects shall be determined biennially on the basis of the amount of money required, in addition to that available from all continuing sources, to provide adequate funds for all educational projects to be subsidized by the state. SEC. 24. Empower and require the State Board of Education to establish and modify from time to time, as conditions warrant, a scale of educational and professional requirements for all positions to be subsidized entirely or in part by the state and a corresponding salary scale in which salaries paid shall vary according to the professional preparation, experience, and class of certificate of the incumbent. SEC. 25. Provide that no moneys belonging to a public school endowment fund shall be invested in bonds or in any other securities chargeable to, or dependent upon, the credit of the political corporation to which such fund belongs. SEC. 26. Merge the existing separate 16th section township funds into one permanent state endowment for public schools. SEC. 27. Provide for an adequate and reliable school census. SEC. 28. Require the State Department of Education to prepare a uniform system of recording receipts and expenditures, and an accompanying handbook of detailed instructions such as have been compiled by the state departments of New York and Pennsylvania. SEC. 29. Summarizing the most important tendency of forward-looking legislation which underlies many of the recommendations contained in the preceding sections, a tendency which must be recognized and accepted before school burdens and .educa tional opportunities can be equalized in any thoroughgoing manner: Place upon the state (which is the only unit capable of equalizing school revenues, school burdens, and educational opportunities) the major portion of the burden of school support by requiring the state to furnish funds sufficient to pay the minimum wage to which every incumbent of an educational position is entitled by reason of his qualifications, professional and otherwise. This recommendation covers salaries of superintendents, principals, teachers, truant officers, county superintendents, assistants, rural supervisors, and all members of the staff of the State Board of Education. Place upon the state also the responsibility of furnishing the funds sufficient to pay the costs of textbooks and apparatus immediately related to instruction. |