* Pritzker campaign…

Education leaders and editorial boards across the state are rebuking Bruce Rauner’s reckless veto of Senate Bill 1. From the Quad Cities to Belleville, Peoria, Rockford, Bloomington, and Springfield, Rauner is getting blasted for his recently debunked claim that SB 1 is a Chicago bailout and for vetoing a bill that ensures all Illinois schools open on time with the funding that they need.

Here’s what Illinoisans are reading across the state about Rauner’s school funding veto:

Quad City Times: Rauner veto sends ripples through Illinois Q-C schools

“I think the governor really swung and missed on this.” — East Moline School District 37 Superintendent Kristin Humphries

“Right now, I’d like him to sign anything.” — Carbon Cliff-Barstow School District
Superintendent Andy Richmond

Elgin Courier-News: Fox Valley educators decry Rauner veto that puts school funding in question

“SB1 is the closest we’ve ever come to fixing that formula to more fairly serve and support all students.” — Elgin School District U46 CEO Tony Sanders

“Nobody knows when we’re going to get money now.” — East Aurora School District 131 Assistant Superintendent for Finance Mike Prombo

“We’ll be on fumes heading toward September.” — West Aurora School District 129 Superintendent Jeff Craig

Belleville News-Democrat: Will your kid’s school have enough money to get through the year?

“It’s just not what should be on the minds of parents and folks who serve kids through schools.” — Belleville District 118 Superintendent Matt Klosterman

“It’s just another thing that’s going to derail us, going through how we will have to do business differently until they get their act together.” — Triad District 2 Superintendent Leigh Lewis

“We’ve been watching and hoping that everything would work itself out, but I’ve been prepping the board for the worst-case scenario.” — Collinsville Unit 10 Superintendent Robert Green

“We have health insurance, power bills and other things that have to be paid and can’t be put off.” — Triad District 2 Superintendent Leigh Lewis

Bloomington Pantagraph: Fate of school funding looms after Rauner’s veto

Bloomington District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly wants the state to “get an evidence-based funding model in place, which is required in the state budget. Anything short of that is problematic for us all.”

Peoria Journal Star: Editorial: With stage set on SB1, lawmakers should choose people they represent over party

So, is SB1 really a Chicago “bailout”? Just because a politician says something does not make it so, which applies to the governor like anybody else.

PolitiFact Illinois, in partnership with the non-partisan Better Government Association, rates Rauner’s “bailout” claim an unequivocal “false.” Meanwhile, a Chicago Tribune opinion page as pro-Rauner as any in the state has written that “the bill is not a CPS bailout. Repeat: It is not a CPS bailout” while calling SB1 “the best chance in more than 20 years to begin shortening the bridge between what wealthy school districts can spend and what low-income school districts can offer.”

If Democrats are not sinless in this unnecessary standoff, neither should Rauner get off the hook for fueling a very unhealthy Chicago-vs-the-rest-of-us balkanization that is too often knee-jerk and ignorant, from all sides. Last time we checked, Chicago is still within the boundaries of Illinois. Is a poor child there less deserving of an adequate and equitable education than one in Peoria?

Rockford Register Star: Our View: Fair and equitable school funding should include help for Chicago

“All of our children deserve to be treated fairly and be given the best education possible.”

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s tweet should have added “unless those kids live in the city of Chicago.” […]

SB1 is an evidenced-based model for how schools should be financed. There are adequacy targets and accountability measures that are meant to ensure that resources go to the schoolchildren who need them most. Staying true to the model helps drive student achievement, a goal we should all embrace. Some states have embraced the model, yet deviated from it, which has stalled student progress.

The governor’s amendatory veto disrupts the model and probably would derail student progress.

State Journal Register: Our View: School funding reform cannot wait

This is not the time to dawdle.

As promised, Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday morning issued an amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1, a measure that would drastically change the way K-12 education funding is distributed in Illinois.

There’s no doubt reform is needed: The state has the most inequitable K-12 funding in the country. There is agreement on key aspects of what is needed in a new formula, including that it be evidenced-based and that new dollars dedicated to education go first to the neediest districts. SB 1 proposed doing both.

Chicago Sun-Times: Editorial: Chicago not alone in struggle with Rauner

Not that Rauner was about to oblige them, or any of the other dozens of editorial boards, school superintendents and civic groups — up and down Illinois — urging him to sign Senate Bill 1. On Tuesday, as expected, he issued an amendatory veto of the bill, throwing education funding up for grabs weeks before schools are scheduled to open.

To our thinking — and we really are speaking for ourselves now — it’s a cryin’ shame. Illinois has had its fill of foolish stand-offs between the governor and the Legislature, and SB 1 is better than just a bill worth signing. It’s a historic chance to reform education funding, easing decades of financial inequities between rich and poor school districts.
“As Bruce Rauner continues to attack Chicago schoolchildren and mislead about SB 1, school districts and editorials across the state are blasting the failed governor,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “No school district loses with SB 1, but all school districts lose with a governor creating lasting damage and leveraging schoolchildren to force his agenda.”

“As Bruce Rauner continues to attack Chicago schoolchildren and mislead about SB 1, school districts and editorials across the state are blasting the failed governor,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “No school district loses with SB 1, but all school districts lose with a governor creating lasting damage and leveraging schoolchildren to force his agenda.”

* But a Public Radio station did find a superintendent who supported the governor’s veto…

A school district superintendent in southeast Champaign County supports Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1, the school funding bill. But Andy Larson with Unit Seven said he was frustrated that the issue has turned into a political game.

“It’s gets really frustrating when we are used as the biggest political pawn out there for everybody to get their own agendas taken care of,” he said.

And there are a bunch of stories that quote Republican legislators approving of the governor’s move (although, curiously enough, there was no roundup from the ILGOP today). Some outlets, like the SJ-R, ran headlines that focused on how Chicago got dinged, which probably goes over well with its readership.

* And the Illinois Policy Institute wants Rauner to go even further…

Rauner was right to strip the CPS bailout and other bad elements from SB 1, but lawmakers should go even further and scrap SB 1 entirely. Beyond the CPS bailout, the “evidence-based” funding model within SB 1 will be an expensive failure.

Well, actually that paragraph has been deleted from the Institute’s website…

But if you click here, you’ll see a screen grab from yesterday.

* There is no indication on the original story that it has been altered, so I e-mailed Ted Dabrowski, one of the authors, and asked why that paragraph no longer appears on his website. I haven’t heard back, but he tweeted this out ten minutes or so after I sent him my query…

SB1/No SB1 is a false choice. Lawmakers should keep the existing formula until an agreement can be reached. Don't use kids as pawns. #twill

— Ted Dabrowski (@ilpoliski) August 2, 2017

The original content is currently posted on the Madison-St. Clair Record’s site.