Crowds of Illinois residents just traveled to Springfield asking our state government to do its job. It’s shameful that elected officials have left the state of Illinois without an operating budget for two years. It isn’t just a crisis—it’s a catastrophe. Businesses are laying off workers and closing because their contracts with the state have not been fulfilled. Ambitious students are dropping out of college because the tuition assistance they earned is being withheld.
“The private sector” can’t save us. All the foundations together do not have enough money to keep this ship afloat. Foundations provide over $3 billion in grants each year. While that is a lot of funding, it’s only one-tenth of an annual state budget—when we had one.
Solutions abound, if one has the guts to put what’s right for the entire state ahead of what’s politically expedient. Lawmakers, please listen to the residents who marched across the state to ask you to do your job. If you can hear them above the sound of ideologies clashing.
LESLIE RAMYK
Executive director
Conant Family Foundation
DOUG SCHENKELBERG
Executive director
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless