People are hopeful and dismayed, fearful and satisfied.
Perhaps most of all, they are uncertain. Uproar that might have followed Thursday's ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court on federally imposed taxes in the highly charged case was replaced by more of a collective furrowing of the public brow. It's really too early to say what all the ramifications are, but they have the potential to be very far-reaching. In an opinion long awaited by vocal tax objectors, the Illinois Supreme Court declared Rockford schools no longer can rely on the state Tort Immunity Act as a mechanism to pay for programs ordered by a federal judge to benefit minority students. On the street, average folks expressed frustration with what they perceive as another layer of confusion in the quagmire that grips public education.