17th District Congressional Candidates: Education Funding
By: Blake Long
Updated: October 31, 2012
In the race for the 17th district Congressional seat, Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling is facing Democrat Cheri Bustos. Since Illinois schools continue to struggle with dwindling state resources, we're asking the candidates how they think the state should treat funding for public schools and higher education, and what should be done to maintain quality education.
Bobby Schilling:
"The majority of our teachers are pretty darn good teachers, most of them work from their heart and they're concerned about kids. So, I think that the big thing is to make sure that you have good teachers in the systems. The one thing that we have to do is that we as representatives in the state and federal level is we've gotta help make Illinois great again by creating a certainty and that's exactly what we need because if we continue to have a hostile environment here in Illinois, the job creators aren't going to come here, which means less taxes, less jobs, means less people paying into the system to make sure that we can properly fund our school system."
Cheri Bustos:
"I want the debate about public education to just be, to go to a higher level. You know we're living through one of the worst economies that we've had at least in my lifetime and we can't short trip our kids and education. I can't think of a better investment that we can make and I think it gets down to making sure that we have the resources needed to educate our kids properly, to make sure that teachers are given the flexibility to teach in a way that their hands aren't tied, and at the same time we know that they're doing right by our kids. And before we advance kids to the next level, lets make sure that they're prepared to advance to that next level."
Bobby Schilling:
"The majority of our teachers are pretty darn good teachers, most of them work from their heart and they're concerned about kids. So, I think that the big thing is to make sure that you have good teachers in the systems. The one thing that we have to do is that we as representatives in the state and federal level is we've gotta help make Illinois great again by creating a certainty and that's exactly what we need because if we continue to have a hostile environment here in Illinois, the job creators aren't going to come here, which means less taxes, less jobs, means less people paying into the system to make sure that we can properly fund our school system."
Cheri Bustos:
"I want the debate about public education to just be, to go to a higher level. You know we're living through one of the worst economies that we've had at least in my lifetime and we can't short trip our kids and education. I can't think of a better investment that we can make and I think it gets down to making sure that we have the resources needed to educate our kids properly, to make sure that teachers are given the flexibility to teach in a way that their hands aren't tied, and at the same time we know that they're doing right by our kids. And before we advance kids to the next level, lets make sure that they're prepared to advance to that next level."
