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* Tribune…
The Rev. James Meeks took over as chairman of the State Board of Education on Wednesday and immediately backed the idea of a 10.7 percent increase in school spending despite the state’s serious financial woes. […]
Much of the proposed $729 million increase would be poured into general state aid to ensure at least $6,119 is spent on each pupil in Illinois. The current year’s budget provided only 89 percent of the money needed to fund per-pupil spending at the same level. […]
Sen. Kim Lightford, a Maywood Democrat and longtime education advocate, said lawmakers want to hear what Rauner intends to do. “Perhaps he’s got an idea that we’re not made aware of yet that will generate revenue,” she said.
A Rauner spokesman neither endorsed nor rejected the Meeks-led education board’s spending recommendations.
Keep in mind that candidate Rauner repeatedly claimed that Pat Quinn had cut state education spending, when spending had actually risen a bit.
Chairman Meeks has set the bar extremely high here during an extraordinary fiscal mess. Somehow, Rauner has to deal with a $9 billion deficit next fiscal year and still come up with more money for K-12.
Governing ain’t easy, particularly in Illinois right now.
* Meanwhile, Sen. Andy Manar has tweaked his school funding reform bill…
Manar’s revamped proposal would still require schools to demonstrate need before receiving almost any state money by showing how much local revenue they have to spend on students. Wealthier districts that rely largely on property tax revenues to fund their schools would receive less state aid, while property-poor districts would receive more.
Regional cost differences would be determined by separating areas into different labor markets and looking at the average salaries of college graduates within those markets.
In addition to accounting for regional cost differences, Manar also plans to see that districts with higher than average numbers of special education students receive more funding, as well as to require a more thorough reporting of how districts spend state money on bilingual programs.
Adding in the regional cost factor “makes a more realistic calculation of the cost of educating students across the state is,” according to Ben Boer, deputy director for education reform group Advance Illinois.
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Manar didn’t share the complete bill draft with the AP. He did send them some bullet points and here they are…
Subject: SB 1
Working from SB 16 as the Senate passed it, here are the changes we are likely to include:
Amendments to Address ELL Accountability: Ensuring accountability consistent with current law for funds provided on account of ELL students.
Special Education: Allowing districts to demonstrate a special education population higher than the statewide average, and allowing that percentage to be used for the formula (subject to a cap at 5% points above the statewide average)
Low-income: Continuing to use the DHS count through the 16-17 school year, and then moving to a count based on 185% of the federal poverty level once better data is available. The changes also propose a slight downward adjustment for the low-income concentration weighting factor (moving from .90 to .80).
Regionalization: Adding a regionalization factor based on the Comparable Wage Index developed for the National Center for Education Statistics. This index measures systemic, regional variations in the salaries of college graduates. This system is currently being used in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York.
Adequacy Grant: Adding a new hold harmless “adequacy grant” that targets funding to relatively low-spend, high tax districts. “Low spend” is determined based on the district’s operating expense per pupil in comparison to an “adequacy target” based on the EFAB recommended funding level and the district’s weights based on its student characteristics.
Adequacy Study: Moving up the timeline for the adequacy study so the procurement and contracting for it will occur as soon as the bill is enacted and funding is appropriated for the study.
* And in other budget-related news…
Gov. Bruce Rauner has given the Illinois Tollway the greenlight to proceed with more than $1 billion worth of rebuilding and widening projects this year, officials said Wednesday.
The projects appeared to be on hold after Rauner issued an executive order his first day in office barring state agencies from awarding major contracts without approval from his administration.
The Tollway doesn’t use GRF money, so the spending wouldn’t have impacted the budget.
* Related…
* Kennedy revived University of Illinois—but at what cost?
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:23 pm
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“Meeks wants $729 million education spending increase”
“I want a hamburger. No, cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake. I want potato chips…”
Response for both?
“You’ll get nothing, and like it.”
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:31 pm
Ready, set, go…here comes the infighting, anyone that knows Meeks, know he will fight tooth and nail to support this…Rauner make your choice rock or hard place?
“A Rauner spokesman neither endorsed nor rejected the Meeks-led education board’s spending recommendations.” geez I wonder why??
Comment by 75th district Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:31 pm
Sounds like Manar is sharing a copy of SB1 with reporters. Any chance us subscribers get a peek?
Comment by okgo Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:32 pm
Interesting Reverend Meeks!
Lets compromise and instead of giving you $729,000,000 - we let you keep what is in the budget?
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:32 pm
Meeks not doing Rauner any favors there, which is good to see. Looks like Meeks has some leeway to operate.
Manar tweaking where he should be overhauling or starting from scratch. I am a Manar fan, but this was a non-starter for many the way he initially rolled it out last year.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:33 pm
Why give the tollway permission to do anything under Kristi Lafluer? Wouldn’t it be better if Cross was in there first to watch over everything ?
Comment by Grundy County Rep Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:36 pm
okgo, good question. Working on it.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:36 pm
Manar’s education proposal has as much chance of advancing as Meeks request for $729,000,000.
Comment by MOON Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:41 pm
$729 million? Isn’t that Rauner’s exact net worth?
Comment by Nick Naylor Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:43 pm
Don’t worry, Meeks has a plan - fire all the tenured teachers and hire part time adjuncts with “real life experience.”
Hey, it works at the universities, right? We don’t need real professors and teachers. And part timers don’t have bennies or pensions.
Mock me now, but just wait…
Comment by PolPal56 Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:52 pm
===Meeks wants $729 million education spending increase===
As there is no relation between education spending and student achievement in Illinois, what will the additional funding accomplish and for who? Lets do something to improve educational outcomes for the students.
Comment by Hit or Miss Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:54 pm
The governor, technically, doesn’t run the tollway, anyway, does he? No legal authority over spending and contracts, right?
Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 12:56 pm
==No legal authority over spending and contracts, right?==
Doesn’t the Tollway Authority use state bond money? The Governor controls the release of those funds.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:00 pm
@Vman-”Lets compromise and instead of giving you $729,000,000 - we let you keep what is in the budget?”=
Agree, at this point you would be hard pressed to find a superintendent that wouldn’t be relieved if funding was the same. Our concern is seeing a significant drop after many district have made significant budget reductions.
@PolPal56=”And part timers don’t have bennies or pensions.”=
In K-12 education they often do. We pay TRS for subs. Many CBA’s require pro-rated insurance for pert-time certified staff.
One of the bigger issues, one that neither Meeks or Manar will admit to, is that the funding formula is a mess. Poor communities do not translate into poor districts in many cases. The poverty grant funnels large sums of money to high poverty districts (communities). Middle income districts are the ones being hurt the most these days because they are neither property rich nor do they have a high enough poverty level and rely on state aide to fill the void. The proration/reduction has hit these districts very hard.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:06 pm
okgo, ask and ye shall receive. Check the update.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:08 pm
@ Hit or Miss- I think you are correct to a degree. Poverty is much more of a factor than how much a district spends per pupil, otherwise districts like Cicero 99 and CPS would have dramatically better results. Having great teachers in every CPS classroom would only go so far and likely only result in a small improvement. Poverty is still the most influential factor in predicting/impacting student success or failure. The improvement that would have an significant impact would be to go to an extended school year with fewer, shorter breaks, that takes money though.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:11 pm
Great to see that Rauner’s team wants to hold him to his campaign promises.
I’m not sure how he’s going to do it and still cut taxes but I never understood how that was going to work anyway.
Comment by Gooner Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:14 pm
@ Gooner
“I’m not sure how he’s going to do it and still cut taxes but I never understood how that was going to work anyway.”
Don’t worry, it’s all in his plan, to be released shortly. /snark
Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:19 pm
==I never understood how that was going to work anyway.==
It’s that magic bullet called “economic growth.” Because we can grow the economy enough to replace $9B in lost revenue immediately. At least those that believe in unicorns think we can.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:27 pm
ISBE was working on its budget request before Rauner was inaugurated, following the board’s customary, annual path of approps-request development. Meaning, those who think ISBE is necessarily telegraphing the Governor’s hopes for education spending might step back a bit.
In this context, the board’s FY16 funding request is not all that unusual or different from its work in years past. ISBE has a track record of laying-out what it believes is necessary for education funding, regardless of the state’s fiscal situation.
Comment by Linus Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:30 pm
PS And, to reiterate, Rev. Meeks joined ISBE as chair only yesterday.
Comment by Linus Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:31 pm
Sorry if this has this been covered, but why don’t we combine the SB 1 and Millionaire’s Tax ideas? New funds, and everyone can be happy (except for millionaires).
Comment by Lurker Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:33 pm
Demoralized - you are correct. Also the governor controls the board who hire the Ex Director. Which means yes he does have final say over the money.
Comment by Right side up Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:33 pm
Right, after reading an Official Statement from a bond issue from the tollway, I’m not seeing it that way.
The tollway authority issues bonds on its own and specifically directs the state treasurer as custodian when to release funds.
The authority also enters into contracts on its own. I’m not saying a governor can’t influence it’s actions, but technically, I don’t see any legal authority where a governor can tell them not to enter into contracts.
The governor appoints all authority members, not just the executive director, but all current appointees were Quinns.
Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:51 pm
Sure the idea of all this spending should be troublesome to people who concerned about the budget but now that we are hiring a COO for Illinois all of our problems will be solved. She will explain to us all how we can spend more for schools and roads and still cut taxes!
I can’t wait for her report.
Comment by Gooner Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:54 pm
Or in the words of Rep. Arroyo, “The Tollway ain’t go no GRF money.”
Comment by Sheesh Hecuka Cupajava Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 1:57 pm
There are ways that spending in low income districts could make a big difference in educating the students, but the money rarely goes there because of Illinois Education Labor Relations Act that allows unions to plunder the funding before it gets to where it needs to be to help the kids.
Low income kids need to be able to do ALL school work in school, and that requires much longer school days so that “homework” is done before they go home. It’s awfully tough in many poor homes to do school work, so keep it in the school.
Poor, underperforming kids need to keep learning during the summers as a matter of program. Give em a few week off at the beginning and the end, and keep them remediating and enriching the rest of the time. Use technology for self paced learning, and make the schedule more relaxed during the summer session.
You may ask “how do we pay for this”? We already have. Between 1998 and 2011 spending per pupil in Illinois increased by about 80%, while inflation went up by about 40%. We could have given COLA raises to staff, but they demanded more, and the school boards had no choice to give it due to striking rights in Illinois. If the excess above inflation had been used to improve the education of the disadvantages rather than just paying more for staff to fail and reduce their work hours and student load, a REAL success program could’ve been implemented to rise up the disadvantaged.
Meeks knows this. It’ll be interesting to see if he has the guts to do something about it.
Comment by Arizona Bob Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 2:38 pm
Try telling Rev. Meeks that spending doesn’t matter. When he marched at New Trier several years ago, he was acutely aware of the opportunities available in wealthy districts that poor districts can’t afford.
Comment by anon Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 5:19 pm
@anon- I am sorry, but some of those high poverty districts run annual budget surpluses. His March to New Trier should have been about income inequality versus what districts can or cannot afford. Work to improve the community and you will see a change in the education/learning outcomes.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 5:25 pm
^^^Linus–
“ISBE was working on its budget request before Rauner was inaugurated….. Meaning, those who think ISBE is necessarily telegraphing the Governor’s hopes for education spending might step back a bit.”
I agree. It’s a stretch to link Meeks and then the Governor to the ISBE budget when they have been working on this for months and Meeks started yesterday. You can see ISBE’s 2015 request compared to what was actually appropriated here:
http://www.isbe.net/budget/fy15/FY15-ga-action053014.pdf
Comment by Myopinion Thursday, Jan 22, 15 @ 9:43 pm