Well-funded schools good for all, kids or no kids

Neil Steinberg:

When my family moved out of Chicago, we left for only one reason: the schools. Our neighborhood school was substandard, we couldn't afford to send the boys to private school and weren't willing to take our chances with the musical chairs game of getting into a magnet school.

So off to Northbrook we fled. And nothing in nearly a dozen years of closely observing two students move through the school system, day by day, from crayoning smiley yellow suns to studying calculus, has made me question the wisdom of that decision. Now we're seeing the next school generation -- families with toddlers moving to our block, following the same path we did. To us, school trumps almost everything.

Not everyone believes that, of course. Most Chicago suburban tax referendums failed last year. From Prospect Heights to Mokena, residents heard the words "tax increase" and said forget it. Times are tight. Who needs good schools?

But look at the result. One of those districts rejecting a referendum last year was West Northfield School District 31. One subdivision -- the district covers parts of Northbrook and Glenview -- voted 12-to-1 against it. Still the district is trying again this year, but if the referendum doesn't pass this time, the results will be dire.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 6, 2012 1:23 AM
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