Letter from Joan Forney.
June 13, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen, Parents, Alumni, Members of the Deaf and Blind Community, and Other Friends of the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) and the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI):As a retired superintendent of ISD and former acting superintendent of ISVI, I am writing to tell you about a document now posted on the Illinois State website. This document is entitled “General Assembly’s “50 Percent Budget”. This document lists, “Closing Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD), Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI) and Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education (ICRE-R).” We desperately need your support to contact legislators and the governor regarding saving these three schools. Other educational programs in Illinois were held harmless but these three schools are targeted to lose all of their funding. This is a travesty. This is a request for support, and a call for action! If there is not immediate action, it appears that ISD, ISVI, and ICRE-R could close on July 1, 2009. There is no choice for Illinois except to pass an income tax which would provide additional revenue to provide services to the citizens of Illinois. Even with an income tax hike, there will have to be additional cuts in all of the state’s departments to meet the huge budget deficit now facing the State of Illinois. Essentially, imposition of this budget means that ISD, ISVI, and ICRE-R are not treated as schools, like other educational institutions, but just as a program within the Department of Human Services. This is tantamount to discrimination against these children. So, what can you do as a concerned citizen? Contact your local State Senator and Representative and ask him or her to support a hike in the income tax. It will only take a few minutes of your time. You can contact your Senator or Representative by email, mail or fax. If enough of us take the time to do so, our elected officials may act, and save the three schools and services for Illinois citizens who need it the most and are the most vulnerable.Feel free in your correspondence to cut and paste parts of this letter or re-write it using your own ideas. The important thing is to act now to help preserve your state schools, ISD, ISVI, and ICRE-R and make certain that the State of Illinois treats these children equally. Send your Senator and Representative a message that he or she needs to be in Springfield voting in favor of the income tax hike as soon as possible. The longer we wait the worse the financial situation becomes.
Sincerely,Joan M. Forney
My Resource link information at http://isd.thebantonline.com
