By Joy Lynn Clark

1/23/2016

Chicago, IL

The State of Illinois still has no budget.  Chicago Public Schools are threatening layoffs.  There’s talk of cutting pensions . . . yada yada yada.

Obviously, all of this truly sucks.

When I first moved to Chicago, I enrolled my son in public school.  I am very low income.  I had to provide some information but, the school fee was waived.  I was floored.

Let me repeat, I am low-income (I am probably in the bottom 10% ).  However, in the school district I came from that did not save me from the $290.00 school fee at all whatsoever.  And it hurt – a lot.  On the other hand, I was totally confident that my son was getting a great education and it was worth it.  $290 is much less than private school tuition.

In addition, there are many parents in the city with school-age children that are not property owners.  Why not make every parent contribute?

Chicago, get a freaking school fee.  (But please let us know many months in advance like, next month or something).

Don’t even take a vote, just do it.