For decades, Illinois governors have had to deal with the perception that they’re not providing adequate funds for public education. It never helped that the usually independent State Board of Education would always ask for a lot more money than the governor and the General Assembly were willing or able to provide.

Not this year. With the governor facing a $2 billion budget deficit, he won’t have the added worry about high-ball requests from the education establishment.

The independent state agency that oversees funding for Illinois schools won’t say how much money is needed for education for next year until Gov. Rod Blagojevich announces how much cash is available - a reversal that is fueling critics who say the board is nothing more than an arm of the governor’s office.

In the past, the state board of education has outlined before the governor’s annual budget address how much money the state should give schools. Often, its recommendation called for far more than state officials ended up providing.

But this year, the board will instead present “priorities” to the governor’s office. It will not send over specific dollar amounts until Feb. 17 - one day after Blagojevich makes his proposed 2006 budget public. […]

New board members said they haven’t had enough time since being appointed to produce a detailed budget proposal but will do it earlier in future years.

Yet, some members also said this process makes more sense.

“In the past, the board would put out some number that, frankly, was probably a little bit unrealistic. It would only serve to antagonize the governor’s office,” the board’s new chairman, Jesse Ruiz, said Tuesday. “We don’t want to go down that road.”

The board did agree Tuesday on some general priorities.

It said the top goal should be raising the foundation level of funding that the state guarantees for each student, now set at $4,964. But members did not suggest a specific amount.