The headline from today’s Chicago News Tribune claims that “Illinois public school districts are roughly $20 billion in debt, a staggering figure fueled in part by decades of special deals in Springfield that have given districts exemptions so they can keep borrowing beyond limits set by law.” In some districts, according to the article, debt payments actually exceed costs for teacher salaries and student instruction. All that money that is paying for interest on money borrowed by school districts? That money might have been supplies for schools or additional personnel to help in special education classrooms, among other unmet needs.

The news article lays out a macro problem. Here is one micro result of that problem: The district where I am currently filling in for a maternity leave is not a poor district. Oh, the district has low-income children. Few pockets of America do not. But I am talking about a solid school with test scores that exceed the averages for both the district and the state.

Professional development is currently frozen in my school. Teachers are not even allowed to attend supposedly free state conferences for which the state has previously promised reimbursement. No one believes in that reimbursement. The state is not reimbursing people for expenses the state had previously covered. In many cases, the state is not even paying current bills. Social services are folding around us in Illinois. A few years ago, checks sometimes took most of a year to arrive. Now, those checks have come to be viewed as a paper version of vaporware.

Eduhonesty: This mess will hit our least-advantaged students hardest. America’s poorest districts rely heavily on government aid to supplement the funds that local property taxes provide. Without that money, lack of professional development may be the least of a district’s worries. Where will the money come from to fix the copy machine? To replace the retired teachers? To buy books, software and supplies for students who don’t have the funds to buy their own books, software and supplies? In a time when technology has become central to many educational needs, where will the funds come from to fix or replace broken Chromebooks?

Districts with strong property tax bases and large percentages of middle class families can compensate for lack of state aid.

Districts without those advantages may be about to run the rapids in leaky rafts without paddles.