CAT Tracks for August 29, 2009 ILLINOIS TEXTBOOK LOAN PROGRAM CUT

Textbooks, shmextbooks...don't give a rat's behind!

Just don't go messin' with our violin money...

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From the WPSD TV Channel 6 Website

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State Cuts Funds for Textbooks

Reported by: Noah Bond

Area students will have to use their schools old text books for at least one more year because of a massive budget deficit in our region.

The Illinois Department of Education is cutting the "Illinois Textbook Loan Program" because it says the money is just not there.

The program give tens of thousands of dollars to school districts. Text books in Illinois will fall even further behind.

"I think that is a disgrace. We pay the taxes. The money has been applied for and it should be distributed," said Max Lade whose grandson attends West Frankfort High School.

Every third year the text book fund is spent on a different group of students in West Frankfort: elementary, middle school, then high school. This fund would have bought books for elementary school students.

The books would have been ordered around December. The new books would have come in the Spring. Superintendents like Greg Goins for the West Frankfort School District will have to find another way to stretch an already meager budget even further. "Obviously we're disappointed. We depend on that funding every year to supplement our text book needs," he said.

District leaders will have to go back and see if they can pay for text books from their own budgets. Some books can cost up to $60, but in this tough economy it's too much money leaving parents and grandparents beside themselves. "Upgrade our system where they can compete on a world wide market," said Lade.

Goins will talk with local lawmakers to generate support in the hopes of bringing the text book program back.