* ILGOP…

With the landmark education funding legislation that Governor Rauner signed into law, Illinois has its first-ever scholarship tax credit program to help children receive a better education, in addition to the highest level of public education funding ever.

The scholarship program is specifically designed to help Illinois’ neediest children. Only students whose families earn less than 300% of the poverty level are elligible for the scholarships. Programs such as this have been praised by education advocates as empowering for low-income children.

The Democrats running for governor, however, all opposed the scholarship program. And the candidates spoke out in opposition to the compromise bill that passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Rauner.

J.B. Pritzker promised to do away with this program, taking away school choice from the thousands of low-income children it is designed to help. He continues to tout his opposition as well as his running mate’s ‘no’ vote on the compromise.

Chris Kennedy and Ameya Pawar also oppose providing low-income children with the opportunity to choose what educational opportunities are best for them. According to them, providing Illinois’ neediest families with the ability to choose the best education for their children is “wrong.”

State Sen. Daniel Biss not only voiced his opposition, but cast his vote against the compromise bill. Biss called it “absurd” to include a program that directly benefits needy communities in the state.

Time after time, the Democrat gubernatorial candidates have shown that they do not stand on the side of the people. Their united opposition to historic reform is a clear example that their policies are wrong for our children and wrong for Illinois.

* But…

. @SethMcMillan48 running against @AndyManar calls new school funding formula a CPS bailout. #twill

— Emilee Fannon (@WCIA3Emilee) October 11, 2017

* From McMillan’s campaign site…

Andy Manar sold out to Chicago politicians when he proposed a new school funding formula this year. Manar actually proposed cutting numerous school districts that Manar represents. Carlinville, Staunton, and Hillsboro would have seen cuts of about half a million dollars. Taylorville would have seen nearly a million dollars less in funding from Manar. In fact, Manar wanted to give Chicago Public Schools a 500 million dollar bailout.

Those district figures McMillan mentions are apparently the same ones that Gov. Rauner used to tout his own school funding proposal which went absolutely nowhere…

And now, of course, the governor is running TV ads patting himself on the back for the new law, which gives lots more money to Chicago than he said he wanted.

* Rep. Avery Bourne, a Republican who represents half of Sen. Manar’s district (and would usually therefore be considered a McMillan ally), penned this op-ed with Manar in September…

One main Republican concern under the previous version of school funding reform was that Chicago would have received its pension payment through the school funding formula, skewing education dollars to Chicago Public Schools first. Under this compromise, Chicago still does well — like all other underfunded school districts. The bipartisan agreement pays downstate teacher pensions in full and moves Chicago’s pension costs out of the school funding formula, treating that district like every other school district in the state. Chicago also is given the ability to raise its property taxes so that it will support its own schools locally, just like every other district in the state.

One main Democratic concern under the governor’s amendatory veto of the previous version of school funding reform was his move to strike several provisions that protected underfunded schools in future years from potential cuts. The bipartisan agreement keeps these provisions intact, ensuring that the state continues to make underfunded schools its highest priority with the goal of eliminating our worst-in-the-nation inequity gap.

In short, this compromise treats all 852 Illinois school districts the same and will benefit every school district and every student in the state.

Changing that pension language as the Republicans demanded actually increased the amount of money going to CPS.

* McMillan got his $500 million number from the ILGOP…

Mike Madigan and his political allies are trying to hold schoolchildren hostage in order to force through a $500 million Chicago bailout without reform.

And that brings us to the top of this post, which has the ILGOP praising the new law (which gives CPS more than the Democrats asked for) and bashing the Democrats for opposing it.

* But it’s not just the Republicans. From the Pritzker campaign’s response to Rauner’s new TV ad…

According to Bruce Rauner, Illinois is a pile of dirty socks and pizza and he is the parent cleaning up after Illinois families. We get that it’s hard to run a campaign without accomplishments, but it’s generally best not to both lie and insult voters in a single ad. The truth is, Bruce Rauner pitted communities against each other, vetoed the school funding formula, and then forced other leaders to clean up his mess

Except, as noted above, Pritzker didn’t support the final bill. He did support an earlier version of the bill, however and got blasted for it…

“J.B. Pritzker’s support for SB1 in its current form is all about politics, not the children. He knows that a Chicago bailout hurts children across Illinois by redistributing their tax dollars towards a broken pension system without reform, but he doesn’t care. Pritzker is willing to hurt children in order to maintain his good favor with Mike Madigan’s Chicago machine.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe