Dot points on the new GOP school plan
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The governor’s education czar Beth Purvis explains the new Republican-backed school funding plan…
HB6583/SB3434 does the following:
· Increases early childhood education by $75mm dollars. This will help CPS because the majority of new full-day early childhood seats supported by these dollars are in the Chicagoland area.
· Increase the GSA by $55mm, ending proration for the first time since
2009. Like other years, there will be natural variations in funding based on three factors:
o Enrollment
o % of children who live in poverty
o Local available resources
· Adds an additional $105mm to “hold harmless” schools that get less money in FY2017 than they got in FY2016
CPS:
o Over the last few years, CPS has seen a decrease in enrollment, a decrease in percentage of children who qualify for free and reduced lunch and an increase in property values. This resulted in their GSA being reduced by $74mm.
o $74mm of the $105mm will go to CPS to hold them harmless
o Additionally – by not changing the funding formula, the Block Grant stays in place. Every year, this grant has ensured that CPS gets approximately $250mm more for special education services than their proportional share of students with disabilities.
This funding proposal will:
o Hold CPS harmless even though they have fewer students, a lower percentage of children with poverty and higher property wealth than many other districts
o Ensure that CPS continues to get the special education and poverty grant dollars as in other years
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 9:48 am:
Hmmm…I guess Higher Ed is no longer part of the Ruaner/Illinois education Plan????
- A guy - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 9:48 am:
Given the day it is, it might be worth waiting for the “Update” on this one to comment.
- Joe M - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 9:55 am:
Passing anything like this will just continue to hold everything else hostage. Time to pass a complete budget.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 9:56 am:
Given the level of detail and rationales offered here, it’s really hard to understand why the state needs an “education czar” in addition to a state superintendent of education.
Seems more like Czar of the Department of Redundancy Department.
- Winnin' - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 9:57 am:
But…but…where’s the revenue stream?
- Sue - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:07 am:
Purvis rocks- most competent person the G has hired.
- anon - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:11 am:
Even though this plan has obvious sweeteners for CPS, I bet GOP legislators won’t be railing that it’s “a Chicago bailout.”
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:12 am:
Bailing out Chicago by continuing the Block Grant plus adding more money into their bottom line?
- Ghost - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:12 am:
they need to develop some standards for minimal enrollment in large population areas. chicago has some small schools that could be closed and combined with other facilites to save overhead costs.
- Chicago Taxpayer - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:29 am:
Too little, too late governor.
And stop with the “bailout” nonsense. Since the Great Recession, teacher pension costs have skyrocketed by billions. The State has generously “bailed out” every school district in the State from the consequences, except CPS, which has had to borrow and slash to keep up. And we Chicago taxpayers pay twice–once with our income taxes for suburban and downstate teachers, and a second time with our property taxes for Chicago teachers. Time for a little equity.
- Illinois Bob - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 10:53 am:
@Chicago Taxpayer
You’re absolutely right about Chicago taxpayers subsidizing the other teacher retirement funds. It’s time they funded their own just as Chicago does, and have to adjust their compensation schedules to address the added employee expense.
While this is happening, it’s also time to create equity by ending the block grants for Chicago. Everyone should play by the same rules. If a community wants to pay to overfund their schools, that’s THEIR business and shouldn’t be a state responsibility.
It’s alos time to reform the property tax laws so that farm property values are assessed as real estate rather than based just on farm income generated. Many downstate school “poor” districts are actually “farm rich” but Illinois laws strongly favor farm income property tax obligations over commercial and rental property tax obligations.
If large farming communities want to pay more for schools, they should be able to tap into that local farm tax base in a more equitable manner.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 12:05 pm:
And the timin’ is sensational
- Mama - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
Where is the payment formula for Chicago & the rest of the schools?
- Groucho - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 1:32 pm:
- chicago has some small schools that could be closed and combined with other facilites to save overhead costs -
Ghost, as has been pointed out by the teachers union before, closing schools does not save money.
- Blake - Tuesday, May 31, 16 @ 4:26 pm:
I wonder how this proposal will affect poor districts not named CPS. For example, Rauner’s previous proposal was going to cut state funding to CPS by around 11% & cut state funding to rural, poor Hartsburg-Emden by something like 25%