Editor’s note

It’s good to hear our new state senator, Andy Manar, speaking up for school funding and a better way to distribute state aid to local schools. “We have disparity that is getting worse in the state . . . between those who have resources and those that don’t,” Manar said in support of a resolution for an advisory panel to recommend changes in the state school aid formula. Nobody thinks another study is the complete answer, but it could help focus attention on the sorry school funding situation. Nationwide, school districts receive an average of 48 percent of their funding from the state, according the to Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, but here districts receive less than 30 percent, leaving Illinois tied with Nebraska for dead last. While this year’s legislative session is already lost to pensions and gambling expansion, 2014 needs to be the year of education. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher