Gambling with our Children's Future

(Guest post by Dan Proft, featured on Chicago Tonight)

Gambling with our children's future... that's a good idea.

School funding has been a central issue in the Springfield budget fiasco, and the central solution offered by our political elites is casinos-as in more slots, more tables, and more boats.

The religious devotion our legislative chieftains have for casinos leads me to this prayer for relief: if the casinos are going to fund our schools, why not just cut out the middleman and have the casinos run our schools?

Think of the benefits.

Concerned about an underfunded school lunch program? How does a comp-ed all-you-can-eat buffet with shrimp the size of your fist sounds?

Worried about the proficiency of the teachers in your children's school? How better to learn math than from a croupier?

Your school is in a tough neighborhood and CPS doesn't provide adequate security? A casino security detail makes Green Berets look like the cast of Reno 911!

And with casino schools, the field trips are built in. Recess with Criss Angel. Celine Dion in the glee club. Cirque du Soleil at the halftimes of football games.

Illinois has had it backwards all this time. We've taken a recreational approach to our schools and a business approach to our casinos.

It is time our leaders in Springfield had the courage to move "all in" with our children's future.

And don't forget to tip your teachers.

UPDATE: Well, I've suggested Wal-Mart could run towns better than the powers that be, here's another suggestion on schools, posing the perennial question the NEA never wants to hear---Gingrich: Will Detroit save its kids or its bureaucracy? Via Bill Baar at Illinoize.

UPDATE: Trib editorial.