* From the Senate Republicans…

Schools do better under current school funding formula than SB 444

Last year, Illinois lawmakers passed, and the Governor signed, historic school funding reform. Then, during the fall veto session, the General Assembly passed a trailer bill (Senate Bill 444) making two technical changes dealing with how Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) is calculated in the new school funding formula. The trailer bill advanced so the modeling done by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for the new formula matched up with the bill that was passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor.

This is unprecedented in terms of school funding; where typically lawmakers get a model of the bill as it was enacted, rather than changing the enacted bill to match the modeling. Unfortunately, ISBE pointed out the discrepancy too late. However, as it turns out, Illinois school districts fare much better under the state’s historic new funding reform law (passed last summer) than they would under SB 444. It is also worth noting ISBE has told staff that “implementation of the new funding law will occur regardless of SB 444” and they will “allocate tier funding based on the law as written.”

According to the Senate Republicans, Chicago Public Schools would receive $45.5 million more under the SB444 trailer bill, which was proposed by the ISBE.

* And that led Dusty Rhodes to tweet this…

       

15 Comments - wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:09 am: Is it really possible that BTIA(TM) did not work with ISBE on the trailer bill? With the Rauner-appointed chair and Rauner-appointed state sup who put it together? Seriously, who’s running the show in the governor’s office? What are they doing all day, sudoku? Get in the ballgame and do your jobs. This should have been locked down months ago without any drama. - GA Watcher - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:12 am: Just watched Tony Smith’s appearance last week on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. He stated at one point that the trailer bill was introduced at ISBE’s request. Is ISBE complicit in an effort to increase amount CPS would receive under the evidence-based formula? - Downstate43 - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:17 am: “The trailer bill advanced so the modeling done by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for the new formula matched up with the bill that was passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor.” This makes absolutely no sense to me. How/why was ISBE’s modeling different from the original bill in the first place? - Hurray - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:22 am: Kudos to Dusty for her tweets on education funding. You have to admire the message discipline and coordination between her and St. Sen. Manar. If there was a golden horse shoe for Best Senate Dem Coms Staffer, I’d nominate Dusty in a heartbeat. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:22 am: When you look at the responses from those closest to this, both in the function of governing and the legislative intent of the trailer bill and it’s passage… … Rauner isn’t about the governing for the sake of its good result. Where o where are Ms. Bourne and Mr. Barickman? Don’t they have a responsibility to say… something? Shouldn’t they be backstopping the Governor? I may have missed it, but aren’t their voices silently speaking if they did comment at all? Hmm. - Mocking Jay - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:37 am: Did an 8th grader write the SGOP blog post? Thank goodness for Dusty calling it like it is. ICYMI SGOP pushing for the same BS they have been for the past 20 years. They are laser focused on screwing CPS. - Bigtwich - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:40 am: Hurray, “When you resort to attacking the messenger and not the message, you have lost the debate.” Addison Whithecomb And if you tell me Addison does not exist I will repeat the quote. - JS Mill - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:40 am: The Senate Republicans story is misleading. With fewer schools getting money from the $350 million dump into the EBM formula, the ones funded without SB444 will obviously do better, but many that should get money won’t. They leave that little detail out. To OW point, it seems strange that the guy that was front and center for the GOP on the school funding issue is completely silent. Very, very odd indeed. In fact how many individual GOP legislators have commented? Not many. Seems like maybe all of the communication is coming from one person. Rauner. Maybe the rest don’t want what he wants? Or, maybe they are just tired of the whole thing? But the dearth of individual comment is very interesting indeed. - Kids not Politics - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 11:58 am: SGOP also released contradictory numbers with over $50 million in variances the same day. So I would wait for the ISBE comparison instead of relying on SGOP numbers which seem to change by the minute. Regardless SB 444 corrects ISBE oversight to implement reform as intended. This shouldn’t be an issue. - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 12:16 pm: Keep in mind, Sen. Brady and 10 other SGOP didn’t vote for SB 444. Wonder how this latest publicity stunt sits with the House Republicans who all did? - Retired Educator - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 1:26 pm: O.W. Ms. Bourne speaks when told to speak, and says what she is told to say. Obviously she has not received her memo, telling her the proper scenario. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 1:38 pm: What is troubling to the honesty of not only the bill and the trailer bill and the AV is that Sen. Manar is speaking to the AV and the bill and Ms. Bourne and Mr. Barickman, the visible face and point people stay so silent. Remembering Charlie Wheeler aiding Ms. Bourne in understanding her own district and school funding levels was one thing, and Mr. Barickman walking back his own opinion by allowing the governor’s office the opportunity to give him his opinion, “corrected”, it’s a third thing that neither see any need to say anything now? I was led to believe that Rauner was first not involved in the bipartisan deal, then Rauner (as any governor can claim with honesty) was the trigger to make this funding formula law… both Bourne and Barickman have nothing to say when Sen. Manar has lots to say on something all Three worked on so closely, without Gov. Rauner? Puzzling. - Cowboy - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 1:44 pm: What? The Senate Republicans are playing politics with school funding numbers. How about all of the other districts that would lose money if the trailer bill isn’t enacted? Did SGOP disclose what the calculation means for everyone else? If this has to do with EAV (property value) calculation, that will impact more than just CPS because every district in the state has “property value”. - The No Longer Silent Majority - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 2:40 pm: Ms. Bourne needs to go, I’m a teacher in her district and she is the worst rep in the state…and this is Illinois - JS Mill - Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 4:06 pm: =she is the worst rep in the state…and this is Illinois= I dunno that is a pretty low bar, Have you ever met Mary Flowers? Yikes. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.