Will County Gazette

Joliet area school districts are expecting about $64 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding, according to media reports, but Republican politicians are skeptical about how the money will actually be spent.

“This is money the federal government is borrowing,” George Pearson, chairman of the Will County Republican Central Committee, said. “It’s money the federal government plans to print but eventually it will have to be paid back twofold because there will be interest. More important, why are we giving this money to the school districts?”

According to a statement by State Sen. John Connor (D-Crest Hill), the funding will go toward remote and hybrid learning, digital connection and new processes.

Pearson, however, questions, why expenses haven’t been paid already as the district has been sitting on its operating budgets while school is closed due to COVID-19.

“I believe that federal money will go to a part of the teacher's union pension, which will only cover payments and interest for one year and the next fiscal budget cycle, we will be right back in the exact same situation," he said. "Unless the federal government plans on cutting Illinois a check every year for the next 22 years because that's how long it's going to take to catch up."

There’s no way to know for sure, according to Pearson, because transparency is lacking.

“The school districts keep lying to us,” Pearson told the Will County Gazette. “In the Joliet school district, Angel Contreras is running for town supervisor while currently acting as vice president of the Joliet Township High School District 204 Board of Education. He refuses to release the budget, which would tell us what the Joliet school district has been paying money on.”

Contreras, who is also chairman of the Housing Authority of Joliet, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His Republican opposition for township supervisor is Diane Harris, according to the Times Weekly.

“Show us that Contreras has actually spent our money wisely before turning around and giving Joliet schools more money,” Pearson said in an interview.

WJOL radio reported that 20% of the $64 million in federal funding must be earmarked for learning loss and the rest can be used for other areas and costs, such as equipment, employment and technology.

“Our children were out for a year and you're only dedicating 20% of this money to learning loss? That in and of itself is ridiculous,” Pearson said. “Why not allocate some of that money to parents who took the initiative to place their children in private school, like my wife and I did, so that the child’s level of education was maintained. We paid out of pocket to prevent learning loss. Shouldn't we be reimbursed?”

As previously reported by WJOL, Joliet Public School District 86 will receive $42,595,457; Joliet Township High School District 204 receives $14,782,792; Channahon School District 17 receives $2,115,173; Laraway Community Consolidated School District 70C receives $1,715,538; Union School District 81 gets $351,091; Rockdale School District 84 gets $837,369; Chaney-Monge School District 88 gets $1,436,211; and Elwood Community Consolidated School District 203 is scheduled to receive $691,737.

“I would like to know how these amounts of money were decided upon,” Pearson said. “We need transparency. How did they come up with this calculation of distribution to each school district?”