Letters: If the state would fund its mandates, the RTA wouldn't be faced with such a fiscal crisis

Chicago Tribune

08-04-2025

The day the Tribune front-page story exclaimed, 'RTA warns of 'doomsday' transit cuts if budget gap isn't plugged' (March 21), the editorial inside railed against state unfunded mandates ('Our views on the suburban ballots' advisory questions on fair maps, pension reforms and unfunded mandates'). Rightly, the Tribune Editorial Board asks: 'Why should the state be allowed to pass a bill that requires spending someone else has to cover?' Our region's public transportation faces a $771 million transit 'fiscal cliff' when federal COVID-19 monies run out. The state of Illinois contributes the least to mass transit operations of any state — 17% here compared to 28% in New York, 44% for Boston and 50% in Philadelphia.
Regarding unfunded mandates, the state's reimbursement for Americans with Disabilities Act paratransit is just 4% — just $10 million of the $249 million yearly mandate. Also, the state mandates free and reduced fares of $150 million annually but provides a paltry reimbursement of $20 million.
Recently, Springfield began to impose a 1.5% collection fee on RTA sales taxes reducing the budgets for the CTA, Metra and Pace suburban buses by another $20 million each year. If the state would fund its mandates, the doomsday budget cuts looming over the 1.2 million weekday RTA riders could significantly shrink.
— Kirk Dillard, chair, Regional Transportation Authority
Use of Will County land
Last month, Gov. JB Pritzker went to Champaign County to launch his Standing Up for Illinois Tour. The governor blasted the abrupt cancellation of U.S. Department of Agriculture contracts and programs. He called farming 'the bedrock of our economy … the backbone of our communities and … a way of life … under attack by the leaders of our country.'
Pritzker can also demonstrate his commitment to Illinois agriculture by calling out Democratic lawmakers for blocking long-overdue state legislation.
In February, state Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, introduced a bill, SB2186, authorizing an alternative use plan for 7 square miles of state-owned countryside near the Will County village of Peotone.
About a quarter century ago, the Illinois Department of Transportation bought the land for a 'third' Chicago airport. One problem: The region is already served by five commercial airports: O'Hare, Midway, Milwaukee, Rockford and Gary.
In 2023, Pritzker signed a law directing IDOT to solicit bids to turn the land into a cargo airport. (The property — including some of the best farmland on earth — is leased to corn and soybean farmers.) Last November, the Will County Board voted to explore an alternative use plan. Area residents envision a 'regenerative agriculture research and development center' — a place where people can learn, teach, experiment, grow, process and sell food and other agricultural products.
I'm working with Will County Board member Judy Ogalla, R-Monee, to find partners to develop the Northeastern Illinois 'Good Food For All' research triangle.
Anchored by the Peotone site, a tricounty research triangle would connect Joliet, Kankakee County's Pembroke Township and Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. (This south metro area is home to 'a critical mass of local food infrastructure,' according to state officials.) We envision a local farm economy planning process to address the interrelated goals of community-centered and commercial-scale agri-food groups as well as nature conservationists.
Ventura responded by introducing the 'Agri-Food Infrastructure Investment Task Force Act.' The bill would authorize a study drawing on 'broad-based community support for solving food insecurity problems.'
The outcome would be a road map to build a thriving regional farm economy.
Ventura was told Illinois Senate Assistant Majority Leader Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey, has found potential airport developers, so there's no need to consider alternatives.
Pritzker should demand that state lawmakers entertain options instead of clutching to an idea first proposed nearly six decades ago.
— Bob Heuer, director, HNA Networks, Evanston
Loss of Black teachers
As members of the Chicago Alliance of Urban School Educators (CAUSE), we are compelled to respond to Paul Vallas' April 1 op-ed 'The decline in Black teachers has nothing to do with CPS' evaluation system.' While we appreciate the attention to this critical issue, Vallas' commentary fails to address the structural policies that continue to push Black educators out of Chicago Public Schools — namely, the do not hire (DNH) list and the racially biased evaluation system known as Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago's Students, or REACH.
The REACH system, introduced under the same managerial reforms that Vallas once championed, consistently ranks Black teachers lower — particularly those serving in high-poverty, underresourced schools. This is not a reflection of ineffective teaching, but of an evaluation framework that penalizes educators for the systemic challenges their students face. These scores are then used as a pretext to remove teachers from classrooms and place them on the DNH list, often without any misconduct, due process or opportunity for reinstatement.
The DNH list has become a quiet but powerful mechanism of exclusion, disproportionately affecting Black educators and operating with no transparency or oversight. It strips educators of their careers, silences their voices and destabilizes school communities — while CPS and city leaders claim to support equity and justice.
If Vallas is serious about reversing the loss of Black teachers, we urge him to support the implementation of the CPS DNH four pillars, which would ensure that no educator is placed or kept on the DNH list unless they:
Have a disqualifying criminal conviction.
Fail a standard background check.
Lack a valid Illinois State Board of Education license.
Have an open or substantiated Department of Children and Family Services case.
All educators who meet these criteria must be reinstated immediately.
It is not enough to lament the loss of Black educators — we also must dismantle the policies that have caused it. The REACH system and the unchecked power of the DNH list are central to that problem.
CAUSE calls for action, not rhetoric. Justice for Black teachers must begin with accountability and meaningful reform.
— Dr. Marlo Barnett, executive board member, and Dr. Rosita Chatonda, president, CAUSE, Chicago
Trans student's life
The Tribune recently covered the controversy over a transgender student using the appropriate school locker room in Deerfield ('Transgender issue puts middle school in spotlight,' March 23). I'm the mother of two teenage children, a son and a daughter, both of whom attend public high school and neither of whom is transgender. I worry about a lot of things when it comes to my kids, but the mere existence of a transgender student — even a transgender student in the locker room — isn't one of them. I'm pretty sure transgender students, like most students, are just trying to make it through the day and live their lives.
By all accounts, the Deerfield student, whose parent filed a federal civil rights complaint over her transgender peer, was given opportunities to change in private, as any student should be allowed to do. That means she was not forced to change anywhere or change in front of anyone, and her safety was never put at risk.
In fact, I wonder why there hasn't been more discussion of what the trans student has been going through. What must it feel like to be so unwanted by a fellow classmate, viewed as so dangerous, that your classmate runs out of the locker room (and a parent makes a federal complaint about it!) rather than share space with you?