Suit seeks to compel reform in education funding
By Ted Cox/Chicago Daily Herald
The state of Illinois is facing a new lawsuit charging that its method of funding education, based as it is heavily on property taxes, is inequitable. The suit was filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield by educators living in suburban Chicago Heights and downstate Cairo. The Chicago-based advocacy agency Business and Professional People for the Public Interest is backing and arguing the case along with the high-powered Sidley Austin law firm working pro bono. Previous suits attempted to make the same basic argument in the '90s, that because property values vary so much from district to district it makes for an inherently inequitable way to fund education. (more...)