As legislator, Arthur Berman was education reform leader

A member of the Illinois State Bar Association for 50 years and a state legislator for almost 40 of them, Arthur L. Berman surely deserved the Lifetime Achievement Award that the Decalogue Society presented to him on June 23.

A member of the society’s board of managers for several years, Berman will be honored Dec. 10 as an ISBA Senior Counsellor and has agreed to speak during the ceremony.

Elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1968, he was elected to the Senate eight years later and became recognized for leadership in education reform issues.

Berman was principal sponsor of the Illinois Education Reform Act in 1985, the Chicago School Reform Law in 1988, the Chicago Reform Restoration Law in 1990 and a constitutional amendment on education in 1992.

He was co-chair of the Illinois Task Force on School Finance from 1990 to 1992, also co-chair of the Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation.

A 1958 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Berman was a partner in Karlin & Fleisher for several years. He was director of labor mediation services for the Chicago Board of Education from 2000 to 2005.