North Cook News

Candidate for Illinois 9th Senate District Paul Kelly is looking for a change in the 9th Senate District.

Kelly urged Illinois parents and taxpayers who are not being heard to be their voice.

"For those living in Illinois Senate District 9 (Kenilworth, Winnetka, Wilmette, Evanston, Glenview, Golf and parts of Skokie and Northfield), early voting begins on Monday," Kelly posted a reminder on Facebook. "A vote for me is a vote for Taxpayers and Parents."

Glenbrook Community Action Network reached out to Glenbrook 225 parents to oppose a health clinic for the school district that would cost taxpayers an annual amount of $500,000. A member of the group said that the idea was born when it was found out that 300 students did not have adequate medical records. Many fear that the clinic would undermine parental health choices for their kids, which has been quietly pushed, with little public input. 

“Apparently, a small group of forces from within and outside of the school/district have pushed this issue to the Board and convinced them to establish the clinic," Glenbrook Community Action Network said in an email. "Our state representatives, (Sen.) Laura Fine (D-Glenview) and (Rep.) Jennifer Gong Gershowitz (D-Glenview), lobbied the state for grant money to use as start up costs, and the projected annual costs will be close to $500,000 per year. GCAN believes this is an incredible overreach of the Board's authority and a blatant abuse of taxpayer funds.” 

This comes as school board member Joel Taub made national headlines after cursing at a constituent at a school board meeting. 

Glenn Farkas, a Glenview resident and Glenbrook Community Action Network member spoke at a school board meeting and argued that "It is not the District’s duty or obligation, at taxpayer expense, to sympathize and rationalize the failure of parents to meet the basic requirements of enrollment by spending millions of dollars annually on an in-house clinic...We demand that this project be put on hold until a thorough public evaluation (via townhall style meetings) can be done in order to have complete transparency and consent from parents and the taxpaying public.”

Kelly was born and raised in Wilmette and attended Loyola Academy. He later on attended Marquette University, after which he moved to Chicago and met his wife. He and his wife have lived in Glenview for the past 18 years where they have three kids in school. The twin pillars of his campaign are lower taxes and better schools. He believes that there is a need to lift the tax burden to grow the state's economy. According to Kelly, Illinois is one of the least friendly states in the country to do business, and that needs to be changed. On education, Kelly is a supporter of more transparency from teachers and administrators on what actually goes on in the classroom. His campaign website noted that in 2019, Illinois spent $16,227 per student, which is the highest in the Midwest, but it had some of the lowest scores in the region. Kelly noted that this trend needs to be reversed. He also supports teaching the building blocks of education instead of political agendas in the classroom.

According to the Northfield GOP, Kelly knows the feeling of the crushing taxes felt across Illinois. He also knows the frustration of seeing tax dollars get wasted in the public school system. Over the past several years, he has seen education become hampered by COVID mandates which have harmed the education of the children. Kelly pledged to fight for lower taxes and better schools if sent to Springfield.