By Jason D. Henry

A long-standing American ideal is on life-support in Illinois and across the country.  No, it’s not the investment market, job creation or manufacturing productivity. But it impacts each of these and so much more of the American way of life that something must be done, and it must be addressed sooner rather than later.

The problem:  Local control of public schools in Illinois has almost become no more than a fond memory. Sadly, students, parents and communities are paying the price.

How did we get to this point?

The historical maze of the erosion of local control of schools is a complex, winding road full of obstacles, turns, hills and even some ditches.  The short version is this: Shortly after the 1983 report, “A Nation at Risk,” the federal government (which was never intended to control local public schools) began to dole out funding for special projects using a “carrot-and-stick” approach.

Schools and even entire states were given “free” money — the carrot — in exchange for certain assurances that regulated federal mandates would be implemented or else (the stick).  Local schools and states conformed to top-down, Washington-based initiatives in order to get the money.  Somewhere along this road, the mandated load that could initially be carried in the family car required an oversized semi-truck.

Fast-forward to today. This truck is far overweight, moves at lightning speed and often lacks the structural capacity to carry what was, at one time, simply a good idea.

In the early days, the “carrot-and-stick” approach to federal funding of public education was palatable to schools because schools needed the money and the mandates weren’t too intrusive.  Slowly, however, the value of the carrots has decreased while the pain of the sticks has dramatically increased.  In short, schools aren’t getting as many carrots, but are still saddled with a truck-load of sticks.

Today, top-down government intervention in Illinois public schools is not just a federal issue.  State government leaders of both political parties increasingly have embraced a similar approach, intervening to purportedly “fix” local public schools.  The price tag for the “fix” — what it really costs real people — is not wholly measured in dollars and cents.

To be sure, improving schools takes real money, but the state-prescribed “fixes” now in play in Illinois have been imposed at the expense of local control in a “we’re the government, we’re here to help, and we know what’s best for you” sort of way.

This kind of cost can’t be measured in any tangible way, but is readily evident in the now-more-frequent disenfranchised looks on people’s faces, the almost helpless tone of their voices and the general “going-through-the-motions” feeling that is creeping into school systems across the state and nation.  Yes, the local control of public schools is slowly dying, and people — real parents, teachers, principals and, most importantly, students — are suffering from this grievous community loss.

What’s the cure?

The good news is the loss of local control of public schools is not a terminal disease.  But the fight for survival is not much different than a long-term medical treatment because it will take time, be hard, and evoke all kinds of emotions in the process.

It will cause citizens, communities and the state to take a close look at our education system and legitimately decide what’s important — without outside influences like political action committees and self-serving power brokers.  We will have to listen to experts, ask questions, conduct research, and then decide what’s best for us as a community.

We may have to off-load our own overloaded truck in order to get our school houses in order to benefit  future generations.  We need to develop a meaningful education plan — a comprehensive approach to public schooling in Illinois — to guide us, something that’s remarkably absent in the State of Illinois.

Most of all, we need community members who are willing to partner with their local schools for the long haul to help transform the way we’re currently doing education business in Illinois.  We need relationships and partnerships that are forged in the common bond of re-thinking what we’re doing for (and, regrettably, to) children by allowing outsiders who don’t know our towns, farms, kids and values to heap mandate after mandate upon us.

We need steady resolve and a calm, common-sense approach to school improvement instead of blame-fixing, finger-pointing and second-guessing so that we can revive local control of schools instead of pulling the plug.

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Jason D. Henryis District Superintendent at Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District No. 196.  Mr. Henry can be reached at (618) 625-5105, Ext. 105 (Office) or at jdhenry@sv196.org