* Sen. Andy Manar press release…
From punishing schools for enrollment declines to penalizing them for their communities’ aggressive job-creation efforts, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner appears to be lining up an all-out assault on Illinois’ long-standing commitment to public education.
And most of the unwitting victims in this battle are school districts that already are underfunded by the state of Illinois and struggling with growing numbers of impoverished students and other challenges.
“What Gov. Rauner outlined in his veto of Senate Bill 1 this week would cause the state to pull back from its investment in public education at historic levels and starve public schools everywhere,” said Senator Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat and a longtime school funding reform advocate. Manar is the chief Senate sponsor of Senate Bill 1.
“This was never about a so-called ‘Chicago bailout.’ This is about Bruce Rauner seizing upon an opportunity to get what he wanted all along: divestment in public education and shifting costs onto local taxpayers.”
In his veto of Senate Bill 1, Rauner proposed more than 100 changes to Senate Bill 1. Among them were provisions that pit schools against local economic development efforts (tax increment financing districts) and penalize schools for losing students.
Many downstate communities utilize TIF districts for job creation and economic development, and more than 360 school districts have seen enrollment declines for various reasons.
In addition, Rauner’s veto language suggests the state should pretend school districts have access to resources that they don’t so that the state is on the hook for less funding, forcing districts to make difficult decisions about asking for local property tax increases or making cuts. He went so far this week as to accuse them of purposefully hiding property wealth.
Manar said the veto language goes against everything Rauner has led people to believe about his commitment to public education.
“Gov. Rauner has suddenly taken a hard right turn and abandoned all of his own policies and achievements to betray public schools – all within a matter of weeks,” he said.
“What the governor has proposed in his veto of Senate Bill 1 does not ‘make it a better bill,’ as he continues to insist. Every lawmaker who signed on to support this veto before they saw the language was sold a bill of goods.
“We need to override this veto, and we need to do it as soon as possible, because what Gov. Rauner has proposed will devastate Illinois schools and will set us back even farther than we are today.”
* The GOP Leaders react…
Senate Republican Leader-Designee Bill Brady and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin today issued the following statement regarding Illinois’ school funding crisis and claims made in the State Capitol Thursday.
“Schools and students don’t need another press conference, what they need is an assurance that their schools will open on time and that every school district in Illinois is treated fairly and equitably. The Governor’s Amendatory Veto of Senate Bill 1 provides those assurances. If the Democrats are unwilling to support his Amendatory Veto, then it is up to them to return to the negotiating table and offer a solution that bridges the gap between both plans. We cannot let another 60 days pass without working to solve this unnecessary crisis. The students of Illinois deserve nothing less than our best effort, and time is of the essence.”
* The governor’s office statement…
* One of the points that’s getting lost is what the governor did with schools within TIF districts and schools under PTELL (Property Tax Extension Law Limit). That’s what Manar was talking above above when he claims the governor “suggests the state should pretend school districts have access to resources that they don’t so that the state is on the hook for less funding.”
Here’s the graphic displayed at the press conference on this topic…
- Sue - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 4:48 pm:
Yea- sounds like the Dems are in a negotiating mood
- Skeptic - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 4:50 pm:
“then it is up to them to return to the negotiating table” So last week before the veto, negotiating was “Outrageous” but now it’s the right thing to do? I think someone needs to pick a lane.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:00 pm:
Gov. Rauner might want to check the record. It was suburban Republican leaders who fought efforts to overhaul the funding formula at the end of the Edgar administration. The same people who are fighting for the status quo now are the same people who protected it back then.
- Sue - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:12 pm:
Michelle- well let’s ignore 2005 thru 2016 when your Dem pals ran the entire show. Why wasn’t Ed funding fixed then. Truth be told Madigan is doing it now for political reasons and to bail Rahm out of the fiscal mess a certain mayor named Daley left behind along with a host of other stenchy problems
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:13 pm:
===Why wasn’t Ed funding fixed then===
Not going to defend them, but this sort of stuff always takes years to do. First you have to convince people to reopen a can of worms, and then you have to create a new can of worms.
- Norseman - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:14 pm:
=== Yea- sounds like the Dems are in a negotiating mood ===
Sounds like Rauner isn’t.
- Jocko - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:24 pm:
…that every school district in Illinois is treated fairly and equitably.*
*except one.
- Pundent - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:26 pm:
=Not going to defend them, but this sort of stuff always takes years to do.=
And that’s why jumping up and down saying you sat on this bill for two months, having a secret plan that you won’t reveal, making good on an impulsive veto, and calling negotiating with the Senate President “outrageous” rings hollow.
There’s plenty of historical blame to go around on both sides. But once again Rauner has taken a problem and deliberately made it worse.
- Sue - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:30 pm:
Rich- so why not do it when you need not enlist the other party ? Obama put thru the most complex and yes awful legislation ever with only the D’s. Kind of ridiculous to blame Rauner for ed funding when Zmadigzn had 12 years to do whatever he wanted
- Anon221 - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:33 pm:
Is the only way to “negotiate” with Team Rauner and his deputies Barickman, Brady, and Durkin to kill the bill (SB1)??? There will never be enough votes for acceptance from either chamber, so there goes that avenue of “negotiation”. Therefore an override vote will once again make it glaringly clear which Republicans truly care about the people in their districts an which only care about their personal ambitions.
- Suburban Hillbilly - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:35 pm:
“From punishing schools for enrollment declines…”
So Sen. Manar doesn’t think you should lose state funding if you need less teachers. Ok what about this scenario. Who should get more money, a school with low property tax wealth that is losing enrollment or a school with low property tax wealth that is gaining enrollment? Under his scenario the school gaining students would suffer versus the school with declining students. Defeats the purpose of reform.
- The Dude Abides - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:44 pm:
@Hillbilly, the local schools overhead costs don’t decrease much if they lose 10-20 students. Down the road in several years those schools would receive less funding though if their enrollment decreases at all because of Rauner’s AV. That’s a problem.
I’m convinced that this administration wants to burn the state to the ground and then plead for changes in existing law to permit Illinois to file for bankruptcy. In one of their releases that I saw posted on Facebook last month the IPI was arguing for that very thing. Now these folks make up the Governor’s staff.
- ughhh - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:46 pm:
—And that’s why jumping up and down saying you sat on this bill for two months, having a secret plan that you won’t reveal, making good on an impulsive veto, and calling negotiating with the Senate President “outrageous” rings hollow.—
Dems didn’t send the bill to the governor for two months, the gov said he was going to AV all along - wasn’t a secret, and everyone has to negotiate to bridge the gap..
- ughhh - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:48 pm:
—So Sen. Manar doesn’t think you should lose state funding if you need less teachers.—
ding ding ding…we have winner
- Suburban Hillbilly - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:55 pm:
@Dude, I certainly understand that it is hard to reduce costs in schools. But if people believe in the formula then they should believe that schools with increasing enrollments in poorer areas should not get less money because a similarly situated school lost enrollment. This is pretty fundamental to the reform argument.
- Lynn S. - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:56 pm:
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why language allocating student funding on a 5 year, rolling average basis can’t be implemented for those districts with enrollment declines.
Andy Manar may be a nice guy, but he’s constantly advocating that taxpayers prop up declining schools. I get part of it–Manar’s district is filled with counties and school districts that are losing population.
But at a certain point, these folks have to admit their most populous days are behind them, and they need to be consolidating.
A district that loses 10% (or more) of its student population is a district that’s going to have to start making some unpopular choices.
And if they want more $$$, then perhaps they should be raising their tax rates.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 5:58 pm:
Rauner claimed to increase K-12 funding by $700M, but was actually one billion short.
Claiming is easy, delivering not so much.
- Gooner - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:02 pm:
“Lead the charge”?
Next thing you know, he’s going to talk about phone calls that never happened.
Oh wait. Scratch that. Already did.
In any case, no Mr. Rauner, you have not lead a charge. Screaming “BLAME MADIGAN” is not leading a charge. It is just whining.
The parallels between Rauner and Trump are fascinating. Both have a tenuous hold on reality, both seem to have some general idea of how government should operate while lacking any idea how to get there or accomplish their objectives, and neither seems particularly motivated to do the hard work of being a government’s chief executive.
- Chuckee Baby - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:15 pm:
Map would have been better if you could drill down, and ID different districts for details.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:21 pm:
Oops sounds like Rauner is avoiding the fact that, much like his AV, he didn’t have the actual knowledge necessary.
- Morty - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:35 pm:
Sue-Yea- sounds like the Dems are in a negotiating mood
Yeah because BVR claiminh he added 700 million to school funding when it was only illusionary money because he didn’t have a dudg# really moves he ball on ge#tin things done
- Morty - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:35 pm:
Budget
- Morty - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 6:38 pm:
Just fyi, in my capacity of King of DuPage, I gave $40 trillion to voucher in Illinois….of course I don’t actually have that money, nor is there a budget for it or a way to diaperse it…etc etc. But I totally solved the voucher issue so everyone can move on to other issues
- Anon221 - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 7:14 pm:
Chucked Baby- try going to http://fundingilfuture.org/sb1_avdata/
I thinks it’s interactive there. Couldn’t get it to work on the phone though.
- anon2 - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 7:16 pm:
Does anyone defend the AV provision counting TIF property as if school districts had access to the full value, instead of the to value when the TIF was created and before development?
- Whatever - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 7:26 pm:
wordslinger @ 5:58 ==Rauner claimed to increase K-12 funding by $700M, but was actually one billion short.==
Worse than that, I could have sworn that the funding was enacted by Speaker Madigan’s majority.
- The Magnificent Purple Walnut - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 7:26 pm:
Senator Manar, Well, that’s just your opinion man.
- Truthseeker - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 8:01 pm:
Aren’t ALL taxpayers essentially local? Arguments of this nature are perplexing.
- DuPage Bard - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 8:47 pm:
Twice in a week you’ve let your guy look unprepared and ignorant to Government congrats.
It’s still only Thursday. Hold my beer….
- HangingOn - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 9:17 pm:
—So Sen. Manar doesn’t think you should lose state funding if you need less teachers.—
Ok, let’s say there’s a K-8 school with 200 students. 16 K and 23 per grade. One teacher per grade. They lose 10% of their students. Down to 12 K and 21 every other grade. How many less teachers do you need?
Not every student loss will result in less teachers. But it doesn’t seem that it will matter according to Rauner. Less kids means less money.
- Concerned Dem - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 9:26 pm:
The effects of Rauner’s AV is the CPS loses funding immediately and 62% of the all public school districts will lose funding (via the per student funding language) in the years to come, while at the same time potentially being on the hook for pension costs… I’d say calling it “divestment” as Manar did is understating what Rauner is doing.
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, Aug 3, 17 @ 9:40 pm:
If the amount of money is constant, but is distributed differently, that is not divestment. It is a redistribution.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 6:34 am:
Fund the schools now. Fight the TIFs tomorrow.
- Rabid - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 7:10 am:
Durkin and Brady want to negotiate their incompleted staff work plan
- PhD - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 7:33 am:
Last Bull Moose is correct. Holding the total funding for state education constant, the changes lead to massive redistribution. This redistribution is largely from poor districts in Tier 1 using TIFs to wealthier districts in higher tiers that do not use TIFs.
- SKI - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 7:36 am:
I’m still scratching my head on the GOP response….How exactly does CPS do better under this historic education funding reform when their budget is slashed by $210 million dollars and redistributed to other school districts?
- Angry Public Worker - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 7:57 am:
As a person who works in education, if you want to find a quick and easy way to please everyone and reduce the budget, force school districts to divulge how many people they have working for them vs how many people who’s responsibility it is to manage others. Wen you manage another person it put’s your salary into another bracket so it is used as a reward. There are people in districts who get managers salaries for managing 3 people. That needs to stop.
- Dee Lay - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 8:18 am:
==…that every school district in Illinois is treated fairly and equitably.*
*except one.==
Cut the chicanery - CPS IS different because that one district makes up nearly 20% of the children educated in the state of Illinois. The next largest district (U46) is 10% of the size of CPS.
To act like it’s just another district is, at best, intellectually dishonest.
- Markus - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 8:39 am:
Bruce Rauner vetoed education funding. Sooner or later pragmatic GOP legislators will vote to override SB1. Sooner, if they want to avoid the drama unfold as their districts are forced to close first. Later, after a few weeks with their schools closed and the public pressure forces it. “Why are the schools closed?”, Bruce Rauner vetoed education funding.
- DeseDemDose - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:50 am:
Rauner gave the finger to CPS children.Keep it simple.
- Christine Williams - Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 2:51 pm:
When it all boils down, I just pray that our “leaders” they can come up with an education funding formula that will satisfy all of our children; not just the rich, not just the poor, but all of them. Malcolm X once stated, “Education is the passport to the future. For tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” The time to play politics is not now. This is the time where both sides need to actually come together and make things better for future generations. Everything is all about the “budget.” Well education and health care should be at the top of the list. Too many of our youth is turning to the streets, too many do not have the education they deserve, too many are dying. Can we just come together once in our lifetime to give schools the resources needed to strive for better excellence? Can we come together to create a better sense of unity?