Building Non-Traditional Coalitions around Issues of Common Interest: Proft Meets with Rev. Meeks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

(Chicago, Illinois) – Yesterday morning Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft visited with Rev. James Meeks, a Democrat State Senator and the Chairman of the Illinois State Senate Education Committee, at the administrative offices of Salem Baptist Church in Roseland to discuss their mutual interest in completely rethinking and reordering K-12 education in failing school districts in Illinois, beginning with the City of Chicago.

After their discussion, and with the permission of Rev. Meeks, Proft released the following statement:

I reached out to request a meeting with Rev. Meeks following recent comments he made taking on the Chicago Teacher’s Union and calling for systemic reform of CPS that would include opportunity scholarships for CPS students currently relegated to schools that everyone knows will fail them.

Rev. Meeks and I had a robust discussion for approximately an hour about K-12 policy and Springfield politics. I went into the meeting impressed with Rev. Meeks’ willingness to stand up to the teachers’ unions. I came out of our meeting with great admiration and respect for Rev. Meeks’ knowledge and thoughtfulness on school reform.

I laid out the statewide school choice plan I have proposed to end the practice in this state of discriminating against children based on their address and household income and extend the same educational opportunities to low-income families that the more affluent and politically-connected currently enjoy.

Rev. Meeks explained the school choice legislation he filed in Springfield (SB 2494) and the rationale behind it.

Our competing plans take slightly different paths but are designed to reach the same place: setting every child in Illinois on the path to be a successful, independent adult by providing access to schools that will equip them with the necessary skills they must have to compete in our digital, global economy.

This is how system change can and will happen in Illinois.

If we build non-traditional coalitions around issues of common interest, we can take on and defeat the grand protectors of the status quo in Chicago and Springfield.

If we focus on policy choices not party affiliation or personality, we can reverse the decline of our state and open doors of opportunity that have been shut to too many for too long.

The current problems with our K-12 systems, particularly in Illinois’ urban centers, are obvious. The evidence of systemic failure and the associated costs are painfully apparent. The successful models to replicate are spread throughout this nation. There are no mysteries here.

However, identifying the problem and knowing the solution is not enough.

The most encouraging takeaway from my meeting with Sen. Meeks is that we share a sense of urgency about overhauling K-12 and a mutual seriousness of purpose in advancing the flag not just waving it.

We both recognize that those who know better have a duty to fight for better. Hundreds of thousands of families in Illinois have been waiting for a long time for political leaders in Illinois to take up their fight; to concern themselves with their children.

Twenty years ago in Wisconsin it was a white, conservative Republican Governor named Tommy Thompson and black female Democrat state legislator from Milwaukee named Polly Williams who came together to provide the necessary teamwork to bring school choice to Milwaukee. Tens of thousands of children in Milwaukee have received a better education in the intervening two decades because of that teamwork.

With Dan Proft as Governor and legislative leadership from James Meeks, I have every confidence that history will repeat itself in Illinois.