A PLAN TO reform Illinois` public schools by linking aid from a proposed state income tax increase to student performance was offered with a $1.2 billion price tag Wednesday by a commission recommending education
The report provides the foundation for what is expected to be a protracted debate this year among Illinois legislators and educators. Among its proposals are that:
-- The 1,006 elementary and high school districts would have to establish learning objectives for students and report publicly every year on student progress.
-- Proficiency tests in reading, mathematics and language arts would be given to 3d, 6th, 8th and 10th graders, and annual results would be made public. Students who score one year or more below grade level would fail but remedial instruction would be provided.
-- The state`s minimum teacher salary would be doubled, to $20,000 annually.
-- Principals would have to be recertified every five years.
-- School districts would have to develop plans to evaluate teachers, including two formal assessments of their performance every year.
-- The minimum required age to begin school would be lowered to 5, and children younger than 5 would be permitted in school if their districts determine that they are ready. State law requires school attendance from age 7 through 15.
THE COMMISSION estimated the price for these and other proposals statewide at $225.6 million in the 1985-86 school year, $442.7 million in 1986-87 and $544.3 million in 1987-88.
The proposals were developed by the Illinois Commission on the Improvement of Elementary and Secondary Education, a 20-member body of state legislators, educators and residents. Sen. Arthur Berman (D., Chicago) and Rep. Richard Mulcahey (D., Durand) are the cochairmen.
The commission`s report said the quality of school personnel depends on the amount of money available to schools, which depends on public attitudes toward schools, which depends on student performance.
To fund education improvements, the commission considered options ranging from legalizing dog racing to increasing tobacco taxes, but settled on proposing an unspecified state income tax increase.
THE REFORMS, if enacted, would ensure that ``children who graduate high school will have received a meaningful education,`` Berman said.
The commission, created last year by the legislature after a national move for educational reform, said explicit performance standards are necessary because ``there is an absence of public awareness and understanding of the goals of Illinois schools.``
Therefore, Illinois` 1,006 school districts--from the largest, Chicago with 434,042 students, to the smallest, Kaskaskia with 17--must establish learning objectives and report on student progress, the commission said.
The commission urged a phased-in system of academic proficiency tests for regular education pupils in the 3d, 6th, 8th and 10th grades. The reading tests would begin in the 1987-88 school year, math in 1988-89 and language arts in 1989-90.
IN STATING that the schools must make their learning objectives and test results public, Berman said: ``The public ought to know what the schools are doing.``
Top-achieving school districts would be commended.
The commission warned that teacher quality may plummet because ``the profession of teaching is not attracting enough of the best and brightest of our young people. Good classroom teachers are underpaid.``
To combat this, the commission proposed the doubling of the minimum annual salary for a beginning teacher. That is the package`s most expensive item, at a cost of $85.9 million for 1985-86 and rising later.
The average starting salary in 1983-84 in Illinois was $14,780--$15,471 in Chicago and $14,619 Downstate.
The statewide average for 99,400 teachers was $24,411--$28,137 in Chicago and $23,136 Downstate.
THE PROPOSED doubling of the minimum salary would help push up salary scales for veteran teachers, and the commission also suggested considering higher salaries for ``exceptional and/or experienced personnel.``
The commission called for the recertification of school principals every five years to ensure a ``basic level of competence.`` It did not recommend a similar proposal for teachers, which would be impractical because of the number of teachers.
But the commission proposed that school districts be required to develop teacher evaluations, adding that every classroom teacher should be assessed formally twice each year.
The commission suggested scrapping the system under which a state-appointed hearing officer, usually a lawyer retained for each case, is hired to decide whether a tenured teacher should be fired for incompetency or other charges. That system would be replaced by a full-time, three-member teacher dismissal hearing board.
The commission called for measures to fight the student dropout problem, including part-time enrollment in vocational, adult education and community college programs tailored to them.