Cancel Friday Night Football to Force Budget Action

The only way to force action on a comprehensive state budget for this year and next is for  schools statewide to announce cancellation of Friday night football for this fall unless a budget— and not just for education—is inked this spring, so that educators and others can plan for the  coming year. 

The prospect of no high school football this fall would indeed generate riots in the streets  across the Prairie State, to paraphrase a presidential candidate. 

I am serious. Nothing else has worked. The state is going down the tubes, in case the governor and House speaker haven’t noticed. 

I am prompted to this brilliant idea, which is, alas, not mine, by two events:  First, a press conference I attended this past week in Henry County (western Illinois)  where area school superintendents said they couldn’t keep their doors open throughout the whole school year unless a budget is enacted in timely fashion and, 

Second, the idea for cancelling football season, voiced by fellow Toulon Lions Club  member Tom Boudreau as we spread Easter eggs out on the local football field recently (which  the little tykes vacuumed up in about three nanoseconds). 

At the press conference, Geneseo school superintendent Scott Kuffel declared: “With  only a few months of reserves on hand, any delay in state and federal funding (the latter comes to  local schools through state appropriations) creates nearly impossible conditions to keep our doors  open for an entire school year.”

Kuffel said that waiting until the May 31 end of the regular legislative session would put  schools in the position of making financial decisions months before they know what resources  the schools will have later. 

Unfortunately, many savvy political observers now think a May 31 budget is pie-in-the sky wishful thinking. They predict the state may not have a budget until after the November  elections, that is, 18 months without a budget! This disgraces all elected officials, of course, and  seems almost criminal. 

If there is anything more important to many Illinois families than education, it is Friday  night football, a hallowed ritual each fall that rivals ancient Roman sanctification of the Vestal  Virgins, keepers of the eternal flame. 

Football programs at most high schools lose money and require support from the school  budget. If there is no state budget in place, how can school officials and board members justify  continued funding for this non-education activity? 

And school officials should not hold out solely for an education budget, which they alone  have had this past year, while higher education and many people service programs have gone  without a sou.  

After all, many of this year’s high school graduates will need MAP grants (monetary  award program scholarships for needy students), which have been unfunded, in order to continue  their education. 

In addition, a lack of social services affects families and their school-age students. The  lack of a state budget is also driving up the costs of long-term borrowing by schools.

This is the time for the Illinois Association of School Boards and their superintendents as  well as the Illinois High School Association, which runs sports programs statewide, to show  some backbone if they really feel strongly about the need for a state budget. 

Acting in concert across the state, educators and school board members could play a  signal role in pulling Illinois politicians out of the embarrassing, damaging morass they have  created. 

Rah, rah, rah, sis boom bah! Let’s hear it for some courage that will force the pols to take  action on a budget.

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