Patch Poll: Should the State Eliminate the Regional Office of Education?

Bob McQuillan October 20, 2011 at 10:01 pm

Rick
While everyone hates to see anyone lose their job, this decision has already be made. Is the ROE more important than the various social service agencies who have seen their funding cut every year for the last several years? The schools already are suffering because of all the unfunded state mandates. If the state is 13 billion in debt we really have ourselves to blame. We elected officials that were not worthy of the trust we placed in them. If the ROE remains, their funding will come from local property taxes which are already outrageous. In reality, the day the ROE lost funding the offices should have been locked. This has happened to employees all over the country, the ROE positions were never guaranteed because Illinois is a right to work state. Again, I feel for the individuals involved but the reality is the state has decided that they can no longer afford the costs of the ROE. Hopefully the ROE staff can secure other jobs either in or out of state government.

Rick Nagel (Editor) October 21, 2011 at 12:58 am

All good points, but if a lot of the ROE's functions are mandated, will it be more costly for individual school districts to have to pick them up? Seems like the state might be pushing unfunded mandates from one entity and placing it on others. That's the pro-ROE argument, at any rate.

Bob McQuillan October 21, 2011 at 01:34 am

According to the ROE's own statements, the chief responsibilities were to do yearly school safety inspections and maintaining teacher certificates. To my knowledge, each district already have their own Human Resources & Building and Maintenance Department Heads who could took over the ROE functions at what should be no or low cost. The districts could still use a combined resume collecting program that they manage themselves. There is no reason that separate districts can't share costs on various functions. If everyone agrees that the state of Illinois is in a financial mess and changes need to be made, every cut can't be deemed something that is impossible to do. These offices have been on the chopping block for several years, this isn't something decided over night. There are more than 800 school districts in Illinois with their own administrators and staff, the function of the ROE's should be able to be absorbed. Bottom line, public sector employees need to face the reality of today's environment - Do more with less.

gary sears October 21, 2011 at 12:28 pm

We've got people running through this office five days a week getting fingerprinted. Downstairs the registrations office is busy every hour of the day, no breaks. The person responding to calls for GED appointments and requests for GED documentation rarely if ever has a break. You want to talk about truancy? Those people roll in here once a week looking like they've been rode hard and put away wet. The demand for services is definitely not limited to health-life-safety (school inspections and permits).

Fred Lee October 21, 2011 at 12:58 pm

As a public sector employee, I have been doing more with less for years. I now do the job I was hired for plus two others. A guy who retired wasn't replaced. Legislative mandates have resulted in a task that really should have a full-time position dedicated to it, but it has ended up in my lap because my office cannot hire another person. In the case of the Regional Office of Education, it sounds like eliminating it would be a shell game. The work done there would still need to be done at the local district level. School districts are notorious for duplication of effort and staff, so each district would hire their own equivalent of the ROE staff. That would result in local property taxes going up. Probably cheaper to have one ROE instead of several districts doing their own thing. Just a matter of who you pay taxes to, not how much you pay. I'd like to see the state go to all unit districts; eliminate the elementary & high school districts.

Robert Hawkins October 21, 2011 at 01:13 pm

As a citizen, I am concerned that our governor just arbitrarily eliminated the salaries of the Regional office of Education superintendents. Reminds me of a tactic that might be used in a totalitarian state. What's next? Of equal concern is that I have not seen a plan to address how the State of Illinois will replace all of the services currently being provided by the Regional Offices of Education. Until I see the plan I am totally opposed to such a knee-jerk reaction and feel it will throw educational services into a state of chaos. I say reinstate the salaries of the Regional Offices of Education and at a minimum, keep them open until the terms of these elected officials expire. In the meantime, come up with a plan to continue the vital services to education that the Regional offices of Education provide.

Robert Cabeen October 21, 2011 at 03:09 pm

It would be helpful if the Regional office of education would provide a list of the services they provide. As school board members serve for no pay, perhaps this could be a volinteer position also. Perhaps not, but as long as the work they do is unclear it's hard to back spending tax dollers to keep this office open.

Bob McQuillan October 21, 2011 at 03:37 pm

Fred
I am sure many people feel your pain of doing more than one job. This has been happening in the private sector since at least the early '90's. You may have answered your own question with the following statement "School districts are notorious for duplication of effort and staff, so each district would hire their own equivalent of the ROE staff" Maybe the state would have funded the ROE if your statement weren't true. Taxpayers are starting to realize that everyone needs to share the pain the economy has caused. I don't disagree the work of the ROE is needed, the problem is the cost to the taxpayers. You are right in that the state has washed their hands of the cost of education. Now that the decision has been made to close the ROE, what is the replacement plan? No one has discussed this and again, closing the ROE should not be a surprised to anyone. The local high school has multiple deans of students and two "asst. principals" , they should handle the truancy problem and fingerprinting teachers is not a difficult thing to do and only needs to be done once. I even know how to fingerprint someone. Took less than 30 minutes to learn.

Shirley Olsen October 21, 2011 at 05:49 pm

If you want to know what the Regional Ofice of Education does, please go to www.kaneroe.org., select Programs, then Business Office and then Annual Report. Yes, it may not take a rocket scientist to learn to fingerprint someone but multiply the task by the hundreds of people who have daily contact with our school children who need to have a Criminal Background check. Having maintenance people inspect their own schools is a conflict of interest. Would you want the people who built your home be the quality control and safety inspector? It is so much easier to go after the guy that people don't know much about, and everyone rallies around the cry of lower taxes. Do you think you are going to see your tax bill go down with the elimination of the ROE's? I think I would much rather see someone take up the fight against those who abuse our tax dollars by defrauding the system.

Bob McQuillan October 21, 2011 at 06:46 pm

I don't disagree that our taxes will not go down because of the elimination of the ROE's. I think most would agree cuts need to be made somewhere in the education department because the state has cut funding to local schools. So the question is: Where can cuts be made if they don't come at the ROE level? A previous comment said that districts are notorious for duplication of effort and staff, so each district would hire their own equivalent of the ROE staff. If that statement is true, then develop a plan where the costs of the ROE's can be covered by reductions at the local district level. Reductions there would reduce our taxes because schools are funded by local property taxes. Remember, the question is now: how to eliminate the ROE's costs without increasing local property taxes. One easy solution would be for all administrators in every school district (@827) to take a 3% salary reduction to offset the ROE office costs. No one would loose their jobs. Now I just made all local school administrators mad. I would love to get rid of the governor position and some state elected officials because those are the people who have put us in the situation that we are in. Again, the whole theory is that costs must be eliminated somewhere in the education department. We'll work on elected officials next week. I think this discussion is great but the poll is bogus because there is no control over where the votes come from. I am not saying the ROE work isn't important.

Bob McQuillan October 21, 2011 at 06:54 pm

How did the voting result change from over 80% for yes to 20%? The ROE staffs wouldn't try to sway the results would they? Get rid of the unscientific poll but keep the discussion going. Open and honest dialogue is the only way we can solve our problems. Glad to see that no comments bash the other's point of view because certainly we all are entitled to our own opinion.