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Kadner blasts funding reform commission report

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Illinois

* Phil Kadner has been writing about high local property taxes and low state education funding for decades. He had some hope that the governor’s education funding reform commission would finally do something more than present yet another blue ribbon report that winds up collecting dust on some warehouse shelf. But then the commission released its report and Kadner is not a happy camper…

So the governor appointed members to the commission, the Democratic leaders of the Senate and House appointed members to the commission, and the Republican leaders of the Senate and House appointed members of the commission. The Illinois education secretary chaired the commission.

And more than 30 hearings and meetings were held where people spent a lot of time talking and discussing the need to do something.

They agreed, to their everlasting credit, that something indeed ought to be done, thereby joining the long list of state legislators and governors who have agreed something ought to be done since the 1990s.

What these people failed to do, however, was agree on language for a law that would actually increase school funding, reduce property taxes and provide an adequate level of education for all children in this state.

The recommendation to wait 10 years to adequately fund the schools is outrageous. Generations of students have gone through Illinois schools lacking the financial support they deserved according to the state constitution.

Go read the rest.

* I thought Michelle Flaherty’s comment yesterday was spot-on as well…

Imagine if the governor had appointed a Future of Nuclear Power commission and after 6 months of hearings and work the commission issued a report concluding that, indeed, there are nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad-Cities that face uncertain futures if we don’t do something about it.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:15 am

Comments

Yeah. Many hours invested by this commission to tell us what we already know.

Comment by Saluki Matt Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:22 am
Reads like a lot of “Status Quo”…

Nothing is worse than having a project out there and people wait for it for months, and it says exactly what the premise of the task was as its conclusion.

I guess shaking up Springfield is shaking up the known and repacking it, uselessly?

Right? Exactly right.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:25 am
Dear Bruce
Wouldn’t changing the formula help you on your property tax pledge? Why not focus on this one, crucially important thing, instead of jacking around with everything else. Accomplish something man!

Comment by Longsummer Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:30 am
==The recommendation to wait 10 years to adequately fund the schools is outrageous== Sad to say, but I think adequate education funding within 10 years would count as progress

Comment by SAP Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:32 am
Unfortunately they seem to have spent their time looking for a political solution rather than and educational solution.

The posturing and refusal to stick their neck out for fear of being dialed up in a campaign ad is really taking a toll on real progress.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:35 am
Longsummer…thank you for saying that… somethin somethin doable… real estate taxes fixed…somethin…
Oh wait, he doesn’t really WANT to fix that.

Comment by Exit 59 Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:41 am
I wonder….

When the commission released their report, what kind of reaction were they expecting? Could they have predicted that most would be disappointed with their lack of specifics? Did they realize that the report was a rehashing of what has been known for a very long time? It makes me wonder what the commission’s charge was, and if it realized it was supposed to develop a concrete plan. Maybe Cullerton and Radogno should take up this issue as well as they seem to be the only ones capable of getting anything done.

Comment by Saluki Matt Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:43 am
ohhh you wanted results??….silly you.

Comment by Under Influenced... Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:45 am
Wait, why did Rauner want to be governor again? Is this “shaking up Springfield?”

What a waste of a pretty powerful job.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:46 am
I’m hearing the gov has asked Purvis to commission a commission to review why the commission failed to produce the results he wanted. The commission has been given a hard deadline of Dec. 1, 2018 to report its findings and specific recommendations for action. Legislative leaders have been asked to name 10 members apiece to the commission, which will also include 10 members of the administration. The first meeting is scheduled for Aug. 1 in the State Fair Coliseum.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:53 am
As usual comments from uniformed people. The commission stated the state needs to put in an additional 3.8 billion to fund education. Just where are the legislators going to find 3.8 billion? And enough the balance the current spending? And pay down the 11+ billion in unpaid paid bills? And pay down the pensions? They can’t! Proposing doing it over 10 years just makes sense.

Comment by Money Tree Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:54 am
This “commission” was nothing more than a stalling mechanism to issue a report that is ultimately and substantially consistent with the numerous other reports that preceded it, and a way for the Governor to try snatch credit for the work of someone else. Kadner is spot-on. The information and solution presented itself years ago; the executive and legislative courage is still lacking. The upside: The administration can no longer hide behind the rhetoric of “non-inclusion” or “it needs more study”. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Or, continue to rail about property taxes and an amorphous “freeze” (which in isolation would exacerbate the problem), or address the real driver of the property tax problem. Please govern for once.

Comment by c'mon, man Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:58 am
This IS insane right?

Bueller….. Bueller….

In all seriousness, these are the kinds of things that my 29 year old self wants to leave the state for. Just ridiculous!!!!

Comment by Peoria Citizen Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:01 am
@Michelle Flaherty

When I started reading your comment I thought for sure it was snark. OMG–a commission to review why a previous commission failed? This is no way to run a business, er, state.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:04 am
Cubs in ‘16.
Everything is snark.
That’s the point.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:08 am
Maybe the executive branch needs an Education Capo Di Tutti Capi to go along with the ghost Education Tsar, the State Superintendent of Education and the nine-member State Board of Education.

Then, some tough choices could be made.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:11 am
This is so so depressing.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:16 am
===Cubs in ‘16.
Everything is snark.
That’s the point.===

I guess it says something about the faith I have in the current leadership when I can’t tell snark from non-snark. Or maybe it just says something about me. lol

Comment by Cubs in '16 Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:18 am
I wish the administration created a new, cabinet-level position to focus on this issue. Y’know, like an “Education Czar.” They could have picked someone with a long history as an education reformer and paid him or her a good salary to do the heavy lifting required to pull this funding project across the finish line. Heck, give that person a new, fancy title like Education Secretary, so he or she could co-ordinate policy from pre-school through college — that would’ve helped give higher education in the state the direction it needs in these troubled times.

It’s just too bad Rauner didn’t do something like this.

Comment by One heck of job Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:18 am
The schools have serious problems.
Serious problems cost money to fix.
The State has no money, and is spending more than it takes in.
Getting money to fix the school problems will require raising more money (i.e. raising taxes), or cutting other things.
No one wants to raise more money (i.e. raise taxes), or cut any other spending.

Comment by titan Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:20 am
–As usual comments from uniformed people.–

You mean like Marines or something?

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:30 am
If the Commission had put in their report what they talked about actually doing, no one would buy it.

I have read all the material given to the Commission, and listened to all of their meetings.

Believe it or not, they want to fund special education based on a study from VERMONT that recommended funds for one special ed teacher for 200 GENERAL education students (no matter how many special ed students a school district has).

Even Vermont REJECTED that recommendation.

Comment by winners and losers Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:21 am
The third,paragraph of the excerpt from Kadner is golden.

I hope no one on that Commission got paid. High school term paper quality.

Comment by The Way I See It Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:28 am
===About 67 percent of the money to fund public education in Illinois comes from local property taxes, which hit middle- and lower-income communities the hardest, often driving out businesses that are essential to funding education while lowering property values.===

… this and

=== What these people failed to do, however, was agree on language for a law that would actually increase school funding, reduce property taxes and provide an adequate level of education for all children in this state.===

this!

But Kadner leaves out *how to do it*. That is, raise the income tax above 5% in return for cuts in property (and/or sales) taxes.

Comment by X-prof Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:59 am
Kadner nailed it calling this report cowardly. It’s especially cowardly in the context of the governor’s repeated remarks that he is willing to “take the arrows” for necessary, but unpopular policies. Instead of working with Senator Manar to pass a bill and take the arrows, Rauner has punted again. A disgusting display by an awful governor.

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:06 pm
One does not have to wait 10 years to get to adequacy, it could be done sooner. Solution increase the income tax radically to at least 5.5%. Ralph Martire effectively made that argument on Feb 1. That level of state income taxation does not sit well with Rauner I would suspect, even with turn around agenda components in the grand bargain.

But there are bigger problems than just funding the Evidence Based Model (EBM), what if the state is mandated by the Trump administration to fund a voucher program that takes millions away from traditional public school districts. Where does the money come from to make that up?

Of course funding the EBM at a much lower level than needed for adequacy will generate much higher classroom sizes than the model envisions and this will make no one happy. I don’t blame the Commission for the results, it was the Governor’s impossible mandate for the Commission that created this problem. It was a Blue Sky proposal for a Commission without a real grounding in what is fiscally possible in a State with over 11 billion in unpaid bills and a weak credit rating. The Governor wanted this and at his press conference launching the Commission it was reported by the Tribune that he acknowledged that spending more money on schools will require the state to find a way to pay for it, he wouldn’t commit to raising taxes to do so, saying he’s an “anti-tax person” who ran for office “to try to bring down the tax burden.” (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bruce-rauner-education-funding-met-20160712-story.html )

Comment by Rod Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:30 pm