* The budget battle is starting to shape up, and it has multiple fronts…
Governor Pat Quinn says any budget plans being floated by lawmakers must include sufficient funding for education.
Quinn’s comments come Thursday in Mokena after the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Illinois House drew up a budget outline that would cut state education funding by $200 million. Another $400 million in federal funds could also disappear. Quinn wants to see cash increases to education, not cuts.
“We want to have a budget that invests in education,” Quinn said. “We aren’t going to have good jobs unless we have smart, well trained workers. So I’m not going to be making radical, severe cuts in our schools. That is very, very the wrong way to go.”
* The Senate Democrats are not enamored with education cuts, either. They had this to say in response to a much larger proposed cut by the Senate Republicans, but it might very well apply to the House as well…
(I)n a letter penned by State Sens. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Dan Kotowski (D-Highland Park) that responds to the Senate GOP’s budget-slashing plan, the senators write that, “Reductions that add to the disparity of per pupil spending among school districts in our State will likely gain little support within our caucus.”
* Speaker Madigan more than hinted that the House is going its own way…
After two years of giving Gov. Pat Quinn a lump sum budget and allowing him to make most budgeting decisions, the House and Senate appear to be gearing up to take a more active role in piecing together a spending plan for the coming year. […]
“I think you’re going to see a member-driven budget-making,” Madigan said. “We’ve already started among the Democrats, and I presume that the Republicans will do the same thing where a large, large share of the budget-making decisions will be made by the members.”
The numbers are the House’s estimate of the amount of tax revenue that will come into the state during the next budget year. The House approved a resolution establishing that number at $33.2 billion.
That is far less than the $34.3 billion the Senate officially set as its estimate for revenues for the budget year that starts July 1. Quinn’s own revenue figure is about $600 million higher than the House’s, but his budget plan is nearly $2 billion above the House revenue estimates.
Cross and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, have vowed that the House will produce a budget based on its revenue estimates and not the higher numbers used by the Senate and governor. That will mean significant cuts to some programs. Under the House outline, education would be cut $200 million. Quinn’s budget plan called for education spending to increase.
* Meanwhile, Speaker Madigan all but said the other day that the governor’s school consolidation plan was dead in the water, and now the state schools superintendent is casting doubt on its viability…
Some of Illinois’ 868 school districts may come together before the start of the next school year. But it will not be because state school leaders have ordered them to consolidate.
Illinois State Superintendent Chris Koch said Thursday that Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to force school consolidation is all but dead.
“I doubt there is going to be anything that comes out this year that gives that kind of direction, that says you have to consolidate,” Koch said.
A Board of Education report compiled last fall cautions that cutting jobs could be difficult if new merged districts are too large. It also noted that a state panel in 2002 said high schools should have enrollments of at least 250 and elementary districts at least 625 students. Using that guideline would mean eliminating 359 districts, not the 568 that Quinn has suggested.
The report found no clear correlation between district size and student performance. Small districts did better than large ones by some measures and did worse by others.
* Related…
* Kotowski, Democrats respond to Senate GOP budget cuts
* Senate votes to eliminate treasurer and comptroller offices: The Illinois Senate voted unanimously Thursday to eliminate the offices of state treasurer and comptroller in favor of a single constitutional office - comptroller of the treasury. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said “there was a lot of debate in the constitutional convention about having the two constitutional offices.” “This is an idea that’s been around time after time after time,” Brown said. “We’ll take a look at it and go forward.”
