Moment of silence … hours of disgust

Here in my home state, Illinois, we’ve learned not to ask a lot of our politicians. “Stay out of the way,” is the best that we hope for.

Unfortunately, the politicians in the Land of Lincoln have a long, proud tradition of not following this simple request.

The latest example came on Oct. 12. Thanks to the “do something … anything” members of the Illinois General Assembly, all students in the state’s public schools will now start their days with a required moment of silence.

The fearless leaders who voted for this took great pains to say that the bill doesn’t require public students to pray during this moment of silence. As one legislator put it, the students can simply take a moment to listen to the birds singing outside. (And no, I’m not making that last part up. All you high school birding enthusiasts, you’re in luck!)

Forgetting for a moment that this law seems to be little more than a backdoor attempt to force prayer in public schools, you have to be outraged that legislators would waste their time on such a stupid idea. Aren’t there real problems they might want to tackle? Illinois public schools are facing huge budget shortfalls, students’ test scores are stagnant or dropping and violent crime in the most troubled of the state’s schools is still a major problem.

And legislators are worried about a moment of silence?

This post may not seem to have much to do with real estate, and I do admit that I’m stretching a bit here to vent about how bad our state government in Illinois is. But remember, the quality of a community’s schools has a major influence on property values. If an area’s public schools are considered bad, they drive potential homebuyers away. Sure, many areas with failing public schools boast stellar private schools. But these are costly. A lot of homebuyers can’t afford them.

It’d help if legislators would tackle the real problems public schools face, not just in Illinois but across the country, too. But that’s not nearly as easy as is proposing a mandatory moment of silence.

How about a moment of silence for our legislators? Like one lasting six, seven months?