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Galesburg and regional districts warn schools will close without budget

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – As 30 educators and students step off a yellow school bus, they bring a lesson to Springfield on Wednesday. “We simply canno...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois -

As 30 educators and students step off a yellow school bus, they bring a lesson to Springfield on Wednesday.

"We simply cannot go into the next school year without a budget," warned Galesburg Superintendent Ralph Grimm.  "There's too much at stake."

Too much at stake for Makenzie Randle, 18.

"The students' voices need to be heard more," she told a panel of state lawmakers.

The senior at Galesburg North High School calls it a crisis.

"How do you tell your kids that you can't go to school?" she asked.

Representatives from nine school districts are preparing for a doomsday scenario if lawmakers don't come through with funding for education by the end of May.

Five of the nine districts say they won't be able to finish the next school year without a budget.

"I have my education," said Lakota Beach, 18.  "I will receive my diploma in two weeks."

But Beach worries about relatives and other families facing uncertainty.

"The board members here have children of their own," she continued.  "They don't know what their students are going to do."

The poignant stories are putting faces in front of the numbers needed to fund schools.

They also illustrate the state's continued inactivity.

"We shouldn't be in this situation," said Illinois Rep. Don Moffitt, (R-Galesburg).

"Until the governor and Madigan decide how they want to go along, I don't think there's a whole lot anybody can do," added Illinois Rep. Pat Verschoore, (D-Rock Island).

That really frustrates students and schools that are just trying to stay open.

"My education has changed my life," said Randle.

It's a call to action from teens with determined voices.

"These people make it possible for kids to believe there's something else," Randle concluded.  "There's a better life."

During an era of cynicism and stalemate, personal stories that really hit home about funding education in Illinois.

 

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