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| Ben Schwarm |
IASB Deputy
Executive Director Ben Schwarm comments on the efforts towards reforming Illinois school funding
formula.
Separate
groups looking into making changes to the state’s school funding formula seem
to be moving on parallel paths to this point. Governor Bruce Rauner chose state
Secretary of Education Beth Purvis to head up his Illinois School Funding
Reform Commission. The Commission, comprised mostly of legislators, has been
meeting every two weeks since August 3. The target for the Commission is to unveil
its proposal in February.
Meanwhile,
Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) has established a group of education
stakeholders and legislators who also are seeking to make changes to the current
school funding formula. The senator would also like to have a new plan ready to
roll out next year. Generally, the same participants attend the meetings of
both groups.
Has there been progress?
To this
point, much of what has been done is background information, reviewing prior
research and comparing various funding models used across the country. The governor’s
Commission has brought in experts from other states to consider those funding
systems, experts on Illinois’ current funding system, and experts on the state
property tax system. The Lightford group has focused more on the various
education and reform organizations that have funding plan proposals or have
conducted research in this area.
These steps
are obviously necessary before moving forward with a plan, but it also makes
for a very slow process (especially when having a fairly quick timeline). Sometime
soon after the November election, the groups will need to put forth a proposal that
they wish to pursue. The negotiating, crafting, and fine-tuning of any plan
will likely take months after the first bill draft is printed and before any
legislation is formally introduced.
Most
everyone involved in the discussions has agreed that any new funding formula
for schools must focus on distributing the scarce state resources to those
school districts in the most need. What became evident over the last two years
was that it will take additional funding to do this. Senator Andy Manar
(D-Bunker Hill) sponsored bills to address the disparity in school district
spending, but his plan was labeled as taking funding from some school districts
and sending it to others. Having “winners and losers” created an untenable situation for legislators.
The
prospect of finding additional revenues brings up the ongoing saga of trying to agree
upon a state budget. Again, after the
election, lawmakers have to seriously look at approving a budget for all of
state government. Though the education budget approved last June covers the
entire year, spending authority for the rest of the budget expires on December
31.
Involvement of school management
IASB, and
its School Management Alliance partners (IASA, Illinois ASBO, and IPA), have
been involved as participants and spectators. Multiple IASB staff members,
including Executive Director Roger Eddy, have been in attendance of every
Commission meeting in person and by phone. Before each meeting of the
Commission, the governor’s office conducts a stakeholders meeting where all of
the education organizations are briefed on what will happen at the meeting. The
Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), the Illinois Association
of School Business Officials (Illinois ASBO), and the Illinois Principals Association
(IPA) have staff (including the executive directors) that also attend.Staff of
the associations has been involved in all of the Lightford meetings as well.
Deeper
involvement, too, has occurred on behalf of the Alliance as both panels have
been extremely in interested in the Evidence-Based Funding Model presented in the
Vision 20/20 platform. The executive directors of the Alliance organizations
have been given opportunities to present the evidence-based plan at previous
meetings. The general concept has been very well received by both groups,
though participants are still getting through the details and nuances of the
rather complex formula.
Where
does this leave us?
Discussions will continue in the coming months. But
with the year-long dialogue that has already taken place, and the involvement
now of all four legislative caucuses and the governor’s office, the expectation
has been raised that there will be legislation in the spring to comprehensively
change the way we fund our public schools.