By Illinois Public Radio
Springfield, ILL – Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich says he can improve the state's schools by taking control of them.
He told the state Senate Wednesday that schools are failing because no one at the state level is accountable for making them succeed.
"And so ask yourself this question - do we do something to try to make our schools fundamentally better or do we leave them the way they are? That's the choice we all have to make," Blagojevich said.
The governor is proposing to gut the independent State Board of Education and replace it with a department that he controls.
Skeptical senators questioned whether his plan would really help.