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Illinois School Board Journal
March/April 2005
Challenging message sounds eerily familiar
by Linda Dawson
Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.
When Charles D. Johnson, director of the Illinois Department on Aging, stepped to the podium, his words rang as true for those who work with education as they did for his audience of senior citizen advocates.
Johnson, speaking at the 2004 Governor's Conference on Aging at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in December, said a monetary crisis is hitting the state just as the need for services is increasing.
"We're working harder now than ever before," he said. "You are overwhelmed by needs, feel unappreciated, dispirited and depressed. And there are greater challenges ahead."
This speech sounds familiar, I thought, looking around to see if I had time-warped back to a November session at the IASB/IASA/IASBO Joint Annual Conference held in the same hotel. No, my fellow conference attendees at this session were for the most part strangers to me. They spoke in new acronyms about CCRS, MA-PDs, PDPs and ALFs.* But their concerns and their needs are surprisingly similar to those voiced by educators.
Illinois is home to nearly 2 million people over the age of 60. Of those, about one-fourth live alone, and nearly one-fifth live in rural areas. Of those older than 65, more than 100,000 live in poverty. And the numbers in all of those categories are due to take a giant leap as the first of the Baby Boom generation reaches age 60 in 2006. The added pressure for services will influence senior services for the next 25 years, just as the generation pushed school services to overload in the 1950s and early '60s.
On the education side, Illinois State Report Card information released in December numbers the state's Pre-K to grade 12 school population at 2,060,048. Of those, 39 percent are classified as low-income through the free and reduced lunch program. While school populations are growing in some suburban areas, many urban and rural districts are faced with declining numbers of students.
Uppermost on the minds of both aging and education is the need for additional funding, much of which is driven by health care costs. For those in aging, health care costs are associated with primary care for seniors, whether through Medicare or Medicaid, at a time when their health care problems may be the most costly. For those in education, health care costs take an ever-increasing chunk of school budgets for employee benefits.
The bottom line: both groups need better funding options at a time when dollars are not in great supply.
"If there ever was a time when advocacy is needed, it is now," Johnson told his audience. "We need to have an objective examination of what we're doing. We need to get the message out to the media. And we need to keep legislators informed."
School board members and administrators have heard the same message from education leaders. And many are heeding the call.
As Johnson sees it, those associated with aging have three options, and those options are just as valid for schools:
The first is to complain. Often the tactic of choice when faced with change, complaining can soon deteriorate into what sounds like whining. No one likes a whining child … and they usually like whining adults even less. And, as Johnson pointed out, whiners usually have a more difficult time commanding an audience and thus face an uphill battle to effect change.
The second option is to walk away. For Johnson, as for nearly all involved with education, this is not viable. Concern for senior citizens as well as concern for the welfare of children is not something people turn on or off at will. Those who volunteer for school board service do so usually out of a deep-seeded need to give something back to their community. To walk away from that service means the community will suffer.
The third option is a renewed commitment to service. For Johnson and those assembled at the Governor's Conference on Aging, it means renewed efforts on issues like affordable housing, assisted living, health care cost containment and lifelong dignity. For education, it means renewed efforts to ensure success for all students and to find a solution to school funding inequities.
Those who advocate for seniors, just like those who advocate for education, have a sympathetic cause. Both segments have value in the eyes of society. But unless someone is involved with one group or the other, they may not have a clue about what really is happening on a daily basis, whether in a school or a nursing home.
People assume they know what's going on, based on previous interactions or what they read or hear in the media. For many, schools are a bad place — based on their memories of school as they experienced it. For others, hospitals and nursing homes are bad places — based on their memories of visiting an elderly relative as a child. For others, the media accounts of school violence or senior abuse lead them to believe that all schools or all senior facilities have problems.
Those who work in education — just like those who work in hospitals and nursing homes — know those images are not a true picture of what goes on in education — or aging services.
In his conference program letter, Johnson wrote about the bonds that unite those who work with senior citizens and their shared vision.
"Sometimes the road seems rough, the hills tall to climb," he wrote. "But if we reach out to each other and allow ourselves to be guided by a goal, we can achieve much for the … people in Illinois who need and depend on us."
That same could be said to those who focus on the welfare of children.
* CCRS - Comprehensive Care in Residential Settings
MA-PD - Medicare Advantage plan with Prescription Drug benefits
PDP - Prescription Drug Plans
ALF - Assisted Living Facility