You see, this is the part Meeks doesn't understand....
http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/1141 ... 03.article Meeks only telling half of the story
His statistics don't explain why poor students get lessSeptember 3, 2008
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
Antonio, an eighth-grader at Bennett Elementary School, and Cheryl Haywood, his chaperone from Salem Baptist Church, were smiling and enthusiastic when I bumped into them on the sidewalk outside New Trier High School's Northfield campus, where Antonio had just gone through the motions of trying to enroll.
Antonio was more reserved, but you could see he was enjoying himself. He and everyone else from the Rev.-Sen. James Meeks' contingent had been treated well by the folks from New Trier, and he was excited to have gotten a glimpse of how the 99th percentile lives.
Antonio was particularly impressed to see that the gymnasium, auditorium and cafeteria were separate facilities, unlike the single room at his school that serves all those functions.
Then Haywood started talking about solving our school funding inequities and how we need to make it equal so that every school district gets the same amount of money from the state, and that's when I became the skunk at the garden party.
"Do you realize," I said, "that New Trier gets only a very small percentage of its funding from the state, much less than Chicago schools?"
"That's not true," Haywood said confidently.
Well, actually, it is true. Here are the facts from the state's last school report card, graciously provided by New Trier officials -- along with the cold water and cookies -- for those who didn't bring their own.
CPS gets more cash from state
New Trier High School gets 3 percent of its funding from the state, while Chicago Public Schools gets 35 percent.
In addition, New Trier High School gets 1 percent of its funding from the federal government, while CPS gets 17 percent.
So how is it that New Trier can afford such a great high school and spend so much more money on its students than Chicago does?
Basically, because their local residents pay property taxes out the wazoo, accounting for 96 percent of the New Trier funding compared to 48 percent for CPS.I'd hate for those facts to get lost in the commotion over Meeks' visit to the North Shore, especially when I'm sure they're not lost on the taxpayers up there.
Maybe you think that the people on the North Shore can better afford to pay those higher taxes. That's probably true, although I'll bet it doesn't always feel like it to them.
I certainly don't fault Haywood, who was relying on the numbers fed to her by Meeks, which gloss over the local part of the funding equation.
Not many people understand our school finance system, although I think you'd find that the people who pay a lot of taxes understand it better than the people who don't.
In a lot of the suburbs, people hear the words "school funding reform" and think maybe it means they will start finally receiving some money from the state, instead of continuing to pile the entire increased cost of schools on homeowners.
They're as mistaken as the people who think we're going to end up with schools that are equally funded.
Click on the link above to read the rest of the story....And whatever happened to the fact that the lottery was suppose to go towards schools only?