Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Meeks ends boycott, still wants meeting with Blagojevich

Austin Weekly News:
State Sen. James Meeks abruptly ended his four-day boycott of poorly funded Chicago Public Schools just two days after 2,000 parents and students descended on New Trier High School to register their kids for there.

Meeks called off the boycott last Wednesday after Gov. Blagojevich refused to have any discussions on school funding reform while students were held out of school in early September.

The Sept. 2-3 boycott, which Meeks organized to protest the disparity funding poorer schools, ended after scores of students spent part of last Sept. 4 in downtown office buildings.

There they received educational instruction from volunteer retired teachers and corporate CEOs. Meeks hopes to meet with the governor, House Speaker Mike Madigan and outgoing Senate President Emil Jones this week, but no date has been set.

However, Meeks said he is confident that a meeting with all three will happen. Meeks tried to snag a meeting between the three at the Democratic National Convention, but that failed to materialized. Meeks wanted to discuss his $120 million pilot program to boost academic performance of several failing schools.

"I received several calls from [the governor's] office since then and we are even trying to work out the details of a meeting as we speak. So, yes, I believe he is going to stick to it," Meeks said.

The state senator and pastor has proposed several initiatives to swap property taxes in favor of income taxes to fund schools. Meeks contends the state contributes nearly 30 percent to education while property taxes pay the remaining 70 percent, ranking Illinois 49th in the nation in education funding.

Meeks wants the governor to keep his 2006 campaign promise of funding education through the sale or lease of the state lottery. When told that Madigan wants to use any monies from that deal for capital improvement projects, Meeks responded: "I want to see it for education."
The governor was at a press conference today and he mentioned Meeks proposals on education. Of course some of the audio of interest that you'd hear courtesy of CPR has him tear into the political culture. Especially after he was criticized for instituting free rides for senior citizens in a transit bailout bill earlier this year.

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