Like health care, education is also an essential building block for economic
health. Similarly, education should also be viewed as a right and not a privilege. Public education funding
should be less burdensome on property owners though. The state should shift the burden to using a graduated
income tax to help fund education. I strongly favor implementing an income tax to provide more funding for
education. Relying on property taxes to properly fund schools is archaic and outdated. It’s actually creating
an imbalance for student opportunity. HB750 is a great bill to resolve this problem. Most Illinoisans have had
enough with the current methodology for financially supporting public schools. They are even willing to support
a progressive increase to our state income tax in order to adequately fund them.
The state should provide more funding to higher education to make state universities more affordable too.
Tuition, books, lab fees, and other expenses are outrageous for students, most of which have no steady income
throughout their years in academia. The state can help place caps in some of these areas to reduce the economic
trauma students are going through while attending school.
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