* Gov. Rauner gave a “good news, bad news” speech today at the Marion Chamber of Commerce. Here’s one part…
I think we’re on the verge of what is [pause] largely good education funding reform. Our education funding in Illinois has been broken for decades. We have the largest gap between what low income districts and especially rural small rural districts get per student versus what high incomes districts get per student. We’ve got a new funding formula, we’ve been battling it through. It’s also got more school choice in it. And it’s a funding formula that I believe in, it’s a better system.
Bad news is Speaker Madigan’s caucus took the bill, inserted a bunch of bad things in it, we’re trying to get out as many of those as we can. A lot of, they’re trying to divert a lot of the money that should be coming to southern Illinois and central Illinois and divert it to the broken financial condition of Chicago. So, we’ve been battling, we’ve been battling that. And it’s not been easy. […]
The bad news is, again, there was an insertion to assist Chicago and its financial crisis and diverting money that shouldn’t go to Chicago. Um, in, in, it should be in the classrooms, spread around the state. Some should be in Chicago, but many, much of it should be here in, you know, Williamson County, it should be in Sangamon County as well. It’s not fair, but it’s going to end up being a compromise, it’s not where we’d like it to be, but what I’ll try to do is fix the problems with it in subsequent legislation.
He agreed to a deal yesterday, had his state party apparatus praise it this morning and then dumped all over it later in the day. He just can’t help himself.
…Adding… Video…