Republicans Sell Out Chicago Schoolkids

In Illinois, GOP legislators side with teachers unions.By WILLIAM MCGURN.

In the 19th century, Illinois was the land of Lincoln. In the 20th, it was the birthplace of Ronald Reagan. In the 21st, Illinois has given us a new breed of Republican: Roger Eddy.

Mr. Eddy is what they call a downstater, an assemblyman who serves an east-central Illinois district hugging the Indiana border. His day job turns out to be in government as well, as a public schools superintendent.

Last week Mr. Eddy became the face of the Republican failure to get a voucher bill through the Illinois assembly. The bill had passed the Senate. Yet despite being pushed by a remarkable coalition involving fellow Republicans, a free-market state think tank, and a prominent African-American leader, only 25 Republicans in the House voted yes. That was 12 votes short. Mr. Eddy was one of 23 Republicans who killed it by voting no.

"Last week was a missed opportunity for children in Chicago's worst and most overcrowded schools, and it was a missed opportunity for Republicans," says Collin Hitt, who handles education issues for the Illinois Policy Institute. "It's not often that a minority Republican party has the chance to advance cornerstone policy with key African-American support. The good news is that the legislation remains alive, and this bill has another chance."

In fairness, Democrats voted against the bill in larger numbers, which is to be expected of a party in thrall to the public employee unions. Still, the GOP failure is striking. Republicans typically complain about not getting black support for reforms that would benefit primarily black families. In this case, however, they had that support, in the form of the Rev. James Meeks, a African-American state senator leader whom Barack Obama has called a spiritual adviser.

Mr. Eddy says it's not fair to characterize him as a teachers union yes-man. In a long phone conversation, he says he supports some things that don't make the unions happy. He points to Race to the Top, as well as reforms that would make it easier for public schools to get rid of bad teachers and hire good ones.

Maybe. Mr. Eddy sure has his objections down pat, here raising constitutional concerns, there talking about inconclusive studies, here again saying vouchers would not help all the Chicago schoolchildren. One fact not open to debate is this: According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, since 2002 Mr. Eddy has accepted more than $76,000 in campaign contributions from the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and the Chicago Teachers Union.

When asked about these contributions, Mr. Eddy suggests that maybe the unions give him money because they value his knowledge of public education. Hmm. Is that really what the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers are looking for in a state pol? More to the point, why is a Chicago teachers union giving its money to a man from a largely rural district more than 200 miles downstate?

Let's keep in mind the context here, too. Less than a month ago, the same teachers unions that have given so generously to Mr. Eddy made up a large chunk of the 15,000 protestors who converged on the state capital shouting "Raise Our Taxes" as the solution to the state's $13 billion budget gap. Even state Democrats are not going to vote for a tax increase going into a difficult election. But Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is calling for one, and Mr. Eddy says he would not vote for one—unless he sees "huge reforms."

As for Mr. Eddy's complaint that vouchers help only some of the students and not all of them, Mr. Meeks isn't buying. He says it's a matter of "triage"—you help the worst off first. He likens Mr. Eddy to a fire chief who arrives at a burning building and declares, "Since we can't save everyone we're not going to save anyone." And he complains that people like Mr. Eddy keep moving the goalposts.

The pity is there were 25 Republicans who did come through. The Republican house leader did what he could. One Republican legislator, a former public school teacher, was in tears on the House floor, begging for this bill. All these people went out on a limb with Mr. Meeks—and Republicans like Mr. Eddy sawed that limb off.

"Republicans had an opportunity here to show they really mean it when they say vouchers are the answer for the inner city," says Mr. Meeks. "If we could do this in Chicago, it would have caught on nationwide. That's what the teachers unions are afraid of, and that's why they opposed it. I wonder what were the House Republicans who voted 'no' were thinking?"

Good question.

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