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Stop the silly games

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Illinois

State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has postponed a vote on his school funding reform plan to give lawmakers more time to digest how it would affect schools in their legislative districts.

John Patterson, spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said lawmakers were given yet another set of numbers Thursday, the third in two days. […]

The State Board of Education released a set of numbers Wednesday morning, hours before Manar initially planned to call the bill for a vote in the Senate. Those numbers showed a big increase for the Chicago school system while cutting aid to a number of suburban and downstate school districts. Republicans immediately seized on the numbers as evidence the funding reform bill was intended as a bailout of the financially troubled Chicago school system.

Manar said the numbers were flawed because they didn’t take into account an amendment he’s filed to his bill to further tweak his formula. The board then issued revised numbers to reflect the amendment. But Manar and other Democrats complained the numbers compared Manar’s plan to the current K-12 budget, not to Rauner’s proposed increase. The latest numbers reportedly make that comparison.

So, apparently it only takes the ISBE a few hours to run numbers on an education funding reform bill because they produced three in less than 24 hours. Manar asked them to run his numbers months ago, but they didn’t do it.

That’s ridiculous. The Board needs to stop playing games. You may agree or disagree with Manar’s approach here, but it’s a legitimate approach and obviously he needs to keep playing around with it until he finds the right combination. He can’t do that if the ISBE shuts him out.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:13 pm

Comments

As a longtime observer of ISBE (more than 25 years), I’d have to say they’ve generally had a reputation for reliability, respectability, and playing it straight.

That reputation is really endangered when we see stunts like this.

Comment by Linus Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:16 pm
===So, apparently it only takes the ISBE a few hours to run numbers on an education funding reform bill because they produced three in less than 24 hours. Manar asked them to run his numbers months ago, but they didn’t do it.===

“Superstars are gonna Superstar”?

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:29 pm
ISBE should have a designated “Manar liaison” so all of his requests for his non-stop legislative quest receive near instantaneous replies. After all, what else has ISBE to really do?

Comment by Georg Sande Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:31 pm
Yet another reason we miss Chris Koch.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:31 pm
Rauner has a new formula, the state will be divided into 13 districts; a boy and a girl from each district will be selected to come compete in a death match for funding for their district. Winner takes all…..

Comment by Ghost Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:33 pm
Doesn’t Rauner control the ISBE? Hrrmmm…Funny that. Must be a coincidence.

Comment by PublicServant Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:37 pm
–So, apparently it only takes the ISBE a few hours to run numbers on an education funding reform bill because they produced three in less than 24 hours.–

Fun With Numbers seems to be a favorite pastime of this administration.

Except for the ROI numbers for the governor’s signature agenda items, the ones that are pre-conditions for everything else.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:38 pm
If ISBE shuts Manar out, you will have no one to blame but Rauner. ISBE will only shut Manar out if Rauner issues the order to do so.

Comment by Mama Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:39 pm
Say it ain’t so, ISBE playing games to make Rauner look good and Manar’s bill look bad? No never.

Comment by Norseman Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:41 pm
First IDOR now ISBE. Sounds like the superstars have learned that statistics are an excellent weapon against Dems.

Comment by Honeybear Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:53 pm
=You may agree or disagree with Manar’s approach here, but it’s a legitimate approach and obviously he needs to keep playing around with it until he finds the right combination. He can’t do that if the ISBE shuts him out. =

With respect, Finke is not telling the whole story here and neither is Manar.

Manar is not doing this out of a genuine desire to help schools, all schools, in Illinois and all one has to do is look at how his bill impacts schools in his district and CPS to figure that out. Or, you give his bill and amendments a full read and do a little math.

I was present at a meeting on April 18th where Manar spoke to a group of superintendents and administrators. There were roughly 50 in the room. Aside from answering some questions he gave a very general presentation on his bill. During that time he made two interesting (to me) statements.

1) He stated that he does not trust the ISBE so he produced his own numbers (he had the audacity to say that he did not know what those numbers were for schools in the district, right). I am inclined to empathize with him in some ways but that statement should really be targeted at certain divisions and not the entire organization.

2) He stated that he would share his numbers with us the next day. 18 days later and we still have nothing from him. The response to the ISBE numbers is false indignation at best, and dishonest at worst. He had a chance to present his own numbers and didn’t. That is on him.

Several times people have pointed out issues with his funding model. He pours money in to a number of districts that are operating at generous annual surpluses and extracts money from districts struggling to make ends meet. His latest version continues to eviscerate Central Illinois districts that are neither “rich” nor are the entirely “poor” while they have made significant budgetary reductions over the last 5 years. His response to one of the attendees, when this was brought to his attention was, “I would rather take from those with $100 million in the bank.” Except he doesn’t because he has not studied the impact of his bill enough. IN fact he gives an additional $9.5 million to a district with $150 million in the bank. Albeit, a Cook County district.

If the funding formula is broken, it has been broken by the manner in which it has been altered. Poverty funding has drained huge dollars from the GSA. That is not a statement against funding the needs of poverty. Quite the contrary. Fully fund the GSA and fund poverty outside of the formula as it should be.

Like with Rauner, the press sits idly by and does not evaluate or challenge Manar ad his assertions. Maybe they are scared of because he cloaks himself in the poverty narrative and holds press conferences with school students as his own set of human shields. Again, just like the governor.

Political games alright, but on all sides.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 6, 16 @ 1:57 pm
Having worked with ISBE staff for 20+ years, I observed the change from an organization which worked for the benefit of children to an organization which is now a political tool. It should not be this way.

Comment by Retired Friday, May 6, 16 @ 2:08 pm
==If the funding formula is broken, it has been broken by the manner in which it has been altered. Poverty funding has drained huge dollars from the GSA. That is not a statement against funding the needs of poverty. Quite the contrary. Fully fund the GSA and fund poverty outside of the formula as it should be.==

That’s the nut of the issue and the only way to fairly evaluate the numbers.

Comment by Markus Friday, May 6, 16 @ 2:13 pm
= Manar asked them to run his numbers months ago, but they didn’t do it. =

That alone might be the best argument for scrapping the current, very complex formula - ISBE seems to guard it like it’s the Colonel’s recipe.

That’s not to say Sen. Manar’s bill is the best way to accomplish this, there might be a better way. But any formula change will create winners and losers unless the state substantially increases its funding for education. With the state budget so far out of whack already, that won’t be happening any time soon.

Comment by cover Friday, May 6, 16 @ 3:02 pm
= But any formula change will create winners and losers=

A pretty cavalier approach until it is your kid that starts to lose out.

Illinois is the 5th most populous state in the country, and has the 5th largest economy. And we have to now accept winners and losers? This isn’t baseball, education is actually important. And his plan is PURE politics.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 6, 16 @ 3:17 pm
Until property taxes are removed from the mix and every school district is funded the same amount per pupil (with small increases for cost of living), there will always be big winners and big losers in education. Our small district is probably considered rich because we have no debt, but we watch every penny and any loss of funding would be detrimental.

Comment by DGD Friday, May 6, 16 @ 3:43 pm
New Chiefs at ISBE, they control the current reputation. New Superstars you know and all. Ugh.

Comment by burbanite Friday, May 6, 16 @ 3:49 pm
=Our small district is probably considered rich because we have no debt=

Wealthy vs. Poor is usually a determination based on EAV, not what is in the bank.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 6, 16 @ 3:57 pm
JS Mill -

Ok, then what is your plan? Of course Sen. Manar is biased for his district, as are they all. You complain about winners and losers, but the governors plan does the same exact thing (as a matter of fact, our school district is incredibly lucky to only be losing $16K under the gov’s proposal) throwing more $$ at what everyone describes as a broken system. Oh and btw, the info in this post seems to justify Manar’s distrust of ISBE.

At this point we have two proposals - one from the governor and one from Manar. If you have a better plan, feel free to share. Or, better yet, pitch it to your senator and ask him/her to propose it.

Comment by fka Lester Holt's Mustache Friday, May 6, 16 @ 4:00 pm
The employees at ISBE are doing their job - running the numbers given to them. The games come from the top.

Comment by Mama Friday, May 6, 16 @ 4:36 pm
The battles are always bloody. Partisan staff is always, duh, partisan–within certain bounds. The majority imposes its will. Bu t the “arms dealers” gotta be honest and trustworthy. BOB, IDOR, ISBE, etc. AND COGFA, LRB, JCAR, LRU, etc.

Comment by Langhorne Friday, May 6, 16 @ 4:36 pm
JSM, the funding formula is way outta my wheelhouse, but I’m told that the Manar plan (or one version of it) eliminates dedicated funding for special education-is that correct?

Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, May 6, 16 @ 4:57 pm