State Sen. Andy Manar and other defenders of Senate Bill 1 shouldn’t be fighting to put a bailout of Chicago Public Schools ahead of their own districts.

All Illinois school districts would receive more state money than last year.

Lawmakers concerned with fairness within Illinois’ education system should eliminate discriminatory subsidies.

In trying to force a Chicago bailout, proponents of Senate Bill 1 are throwing hundreds of thousands of downstate and suburban students into limbo.

Senate Bill 1 is yet another unfair bailout of long-term mismanagement within Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois’ debt per student is the 11th highest of any state in the nation. It is almost 15 percent higher than the national average of $8,764.

Much like other plans in the General Assembly before it, the House Democrats’ budget plan does nothing to structurally reform state government and bring down costs, but instead increases the burden on Illinois taxpayers.

A Senate amendment would require public elementary schools to teach cursive writing, while the original House bill would extend the handwriting instruction mandate to all Illinois public elementary and high schools.

While the Better Government Association has claimed Illinois’ budget contains no fat to trim, a deeper analysis reveals the state has many areas of expensive inefficiency to reform in state and local government costs, the Medicaid program and K-12 education.