Letters to the editor 10-24-24

GO VOTE

I’m glad the Democrats are finally putting up candidates for county races (“County Board elections in the spotlight,” Oct. 3). Now get out there and vote!

Anne Hofferkamp

Springfield

LONG ENOUGH

A recent article in The Atlantic noted that one of George Washington’s greatest gifts to America was knowing that the office didn’t belong to him and that he should go after two terms. After 30 years on the Sangamon County Board, Andy Van Meter should follow that advice.

We have term limits for presidents and for Springfield City Council members. In his 24 years as board chair, Van Meter has not moved the board into the 21st century by broadcasting board or committee meetings live on the internet or holding them at a time when they are fully available to the public.

The current controversy over the selection of a new sheriff is an example of why new leadership is needed. Twenty-four years as chair and 30 years on the board is long enough, no matter who you are.

Dennis Rendleman

Springfield

THANKS FOR SUPPORT

The Sangamon County Historical Society thanks the many who came to our annual cemetery walk, Echoes of Yesteryear, at Oak Ridge Cemetery on Sept. 29 (“Echoes of Yesteryear at Oak Ridge Cemetery,” Sept. 19). This is the Society’s free gift to the city, which highlights influential citizens who impacted Springfield and Sangamon County.

Thanks to the 450 interested attendees, many who donated to the Society. And special thanks to our sponsors, Arnold Monument, Butler Funeral Homes and Cremation Tribute Center, Bisch Funeral Home and Staab Funeral Homes. 

The Society is already planning next year’s walk – mark your calendars for Oct. 5, 2025.  

Cinda Klickna 

SCHS president 

FUND CHILD CARE FACILITIES

During my two terms as a state legislator, I frequently dealt with a broad scope of business-related issues. In the position I hold today, my work still spans a wide range of concerns regarding local business stability and economic development. Here’s one common theme I encountered from these vantage points: Child care and early education are central to the viability and productivity of Illinois’ workforce.

Without reliable, accessible and high-quality early childhood services, parents cannot find or maintain work. Employers cannot field a stable workforce. Plus, without early learning opportunities, young children lack the solid skills foundation they need for success in classrooms and careers.

Each year, the child care crisis drains nearly $5 billion from Illinois’ economy, a figure tallied recently by ReadyNation – a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of business leaders to which I belong. Even worse, that price tag only reflects the economic fallout from insufficient care for infants and toddlers; it would soar further if it also accounted for the unmet needs of children age 3 and older.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to fully address those shortcomings in the absence of appropriate physical space to house early childhood programs, which is a serious problem.

School districts participating in the State Board of Education’s 2022 capital-concerns survey reported the need for nearly 350 new pre-K classrooms statewide. Unreported were the needs for child care and other birth-to-5 services administered by many hundreds of non-school providers – community-based organizations that often struggle to access construction funding even more than schools do.

Ironically, these needs are only growing with Illinois’ admirable efforts to extend more pre-K and child care access to families lacking services. That’s one reason why this network of business executives also supports the call for increasing bricks-and-mortar resources by growing the state’s existing Early Childhood Construction Grant initiative and focusing greater priority on the concerns of community-based providers.

Right now, Illinois faces a signal opportunity to pursue these aims: A two-year planning period to shape the scope and direction of a new state Department of Early Childhood, an agency whose creation was authorized with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of legislators in May. The new state agency will consolidate responsibility for key birth-to-5 programs, and a variety of public-private discussion tables are helping to elevate attention to some of their core concerns as well as facilitate solutions.

Early childhood construction and renovation needs must be on the agenda; these vital agency-planning discussions would prove incomplete if they fail to reflect Illinois’ dire facilities needs while our state envisions a course of action to help child care, preschool and birth-to-3 programs in communities statewide – and, in the process, strengthen our business climate and economy.

Mike Murphy, president and CEO

Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce

Former state representative, 99th District

This article appears in Sheriff’s department hiring under scrutiny.