SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A few years ago, EAGnews covered a teachers union rally on the lawn of the Illinois state capitol, where thousands of educators chanted over and over to observing lawmakers: “Raise our taxes!”

They were insisting, despite the severe recession, that everyone should cough up more tax dollars to “fully fund” public schools.

Now Illinois teachers unions are again calling for an increase in income taxes, but interestingly enough, not their own. They want the state to switch from a flat rate income tax system to a progressive system, meaning the tax rate would be higher for those who make more money.

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They argue that more revenue is needed because a temporary income tax increase will begin to expire soon. Personal income tax rates are scheduled to drop from 5 to 3.75 percent in 2015 while corporate rates would drop from 7 to 5.25 percent.

“Our research shows that most people would actually have a (tax) decrease, that small businesses would benefit,” Cinda Klickna, president of the Illinois Education Association, told WICA-TV. “And sure, some of the huge corporations or very, very wealthy people would pay more. The whole concept is the more you make, the more you pay.”

What the union either doesn’t understand or refuses to acknowledge is that many small business owners pay personal income taxes on revenue produced by their companies and likely would pay more.

For anyone hoping to expand Illinois’ economy and increase the number of private sector jobs, this is a very bad idea. As a spokesperson for the National Federation for Independent Businesses put it, the flat tax rate is one of the only tools this liberal, high tax state has in place to attract investment.

A tax system that doesn’t penalize financial success is attractive to successful people and businesses.

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Fairness to all taxpayers, regardless of their incomes, should be another consideration when state lawmakers deal with the tax-for-education question. Should anyone be forced to pay higher taxes when most of the extra revenue would probably be wasted on raises and more expensive benefits for union teachers, instead of anything that directly impacts student learning?

There’s no question that public schools could operate on significantly smaller budgets if they were not forced to hire union labor and bargain with union leaders. Has anyone ever considered the possibility of polling the residents of each school district, asking them if they favor union or non-union labor in their districts, and honoring their wishes? After all, they’re the people paying the bills.

Many residents would probably favor the non-union route, since most union contracts force their local schools to pay and reward all teachers equally, regardless of their skill, or lack of skill, in the classroom. Throwing mindless raises to teachers as a group, without separating the standouts from the washouts, does little to improve the quality of instruction.

Illinois residents could point to Wisconsin’s very successful experiment of running public schools without runaway unionism. Act 10 of 2011 ended most collective bargaining privileges for Wisconsin teachers unions, allowing school administrators to operate their districts at lower cost, with more power to hire and fire and build the best possible teaching staffs.

Wisconsin did not need a tax increase to keep its schools open. It simply reduced the power of a huge parasite – the teachers union – and allowed schools to operate in a leaner and more sensible manner. Students now come first in Wisconsin. Good teachers can make more money than they ever made on the union scale, while bad teachers can be sent on their way without a big stink.

More than anything, limits on collective bargaining have allowed school officials to put money back in the classroom where it’s needed, instead of funding a bunch of expensive across-the-board raises and bonuses for teachers who continue to fight any type of classroom accountability.

Most American public schools are not short on money. They simply lack the freedom to spend their revenue in the wisest possible way that produces the best results for students.

That’s not the fault of taxpayers, whether they be rich, middle class or poor, and they shouldn’t be forced to continue paying more for a fundamentally broken education system.