OntheWilderSide

Rich Whitney

Illinois Green Party candidate Rich Whitney criticized Governor Quinn’s announcement today of specific budget cuts in education and social services. Schools will receive a total of $311 million dollars less than last year and funding to the Department of Human Services will be cut by $576 million. The reduction in funding in education will mostly impact transportation resources while the cuts to social services will hurt areas such as rehabilitation and mental health treatment.

Whitney stated:

The cut to education transportation is a horrible decision for a number of reasons. We are going to ask our schools to transport our children on aging buses that are less safe and more expensive to maintain than modern ones. We may also be putting our children at risk by cutting bus routes and asking them to travel farther on their own to school.

Instead of fixing the broken tax system, this government’s solution is to make cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable people in the state of Illinois. These are the populations that need our support the most. It is time for real change in Illinois. Quinn is doing now exactly what Brady proposes to do; only Quinn is giving us slow torture while Brady would just destroy everything quickly. That’s what the “choice” between Quinn and Brady amounts to. I’m the only candidate that actually has a plan to save our schools and public services.

Rich Whitney is a 55-year-old civil rights and employment lawyer from Carbondale. As a lawyer, he has fought for working people who have lost their jobs or had their rights violated. A founder of the Illinois Green Party, he has long been politically active in support of the labor, health-care reform, environmental, civil rights, and peace movements. In 2006, he served as the Green Party’s first candidate for Governor, winning over 360,000 votes and making it possible for Illinois voters to have a third choice on the ballot statewide.

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, economy, governor, grassroots democracy, Green Party, News, politics, Press Release, social & economic justice Tagged: | buses, Illinois, Illinois Governor, Illinois Green Party, school budgets, social services, transportation