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The governor’s new fig leaf

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Union ally Will Guzzardi, a Democratic state representative from Logan Square, also urged [Chicago] teachers to save some anger for Springfield.

“The reason you all are on furlough here today and not in classrooms teaching our children, the most immediate cause is Gov. Bruce Rauner,” he said. “So in addition to demanding that Chicago Public Schools do right by our students, I need your help in demanding that Gov. Rauner give a fair shake to the black and brown students in Chicago.”

Catherine Kelly, a Rauner spokeswoman, deflected the blame, noting the governor is “someone who’s been in office for two years.”

“We would encourage Rep. Guzzardi to work with his colleagues to ensure the framework by the bipartisan, bicameral School Funding Commission is passed into law, so that we better fund our low-income students and the schools that serve them,” she wrote in an email.

No bill has been introduced.

So, they’re gonna use the “framework” as a fig leaf? Pretty thin stuff there, considering that it’s nowhere close to being ready to put into actual legislation.

* Here’s Doug Finke…

The Illinois School Funding Reform Commission wrapped up its work last week and delivered its report on revamping K-12 school funding on time.

That was the good news. The bad news, at least in the eyes of some people, is that the commission delivered its report. Because in their eyes, the last thing Illinois needs is another report that says the way the state pays for public education is flawed and needs to be fixed. What Illinois needs is a concrete proposal that actually fixes the problem, something that has eluded the state for literally decades.

Pretty much everyone went out of their way to praise the work of the commission and say it was an example of what can happen when people work together in a bipartisan way. Unfortunately, this bipartisan cooperation didn’t produce anything that legislators can actually debate, let alone vote on. There still has to be a bill drafted that incorporates all the ideas of the “framework” laid out by the commission.

Yep.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 9:43 am

Comments

==Catherine Kelly, a Rauner spokeswoman, deflected the blame, noting the governor is “someone who’s been in office for two years.”==

Getting so old. The CPS bill wasn’t vetoed 2 years and one day ago. And if he won’t do anything in the first half of his term, he’s just going to waste any other time we give him, too.

Comment by Arsenal Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 9:52 am
“I just got here!” only works for the first couple of months…especially when you touted your business acumen on the campaign trail.

It’s time to open the second envelope Pat Quinn left you.

Comment by Jocko Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 10:11 am
Geez, the guv’s office response doesn’t even qualify as phoning-it in.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 10:35 am
===We would encourage Rep. Guzzardi to work with his colleagues to ensure the framework by the bipartisan, bicameral School Funding Commission is passed into law,…===

You can’t pass a “framework,” you need a bill for that. Maybe they could ask somebody in Jim Durkin’s office to walk over to LRB and write it up into bill form.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like any bills that Guzzardi sponsored lol, but thanks for asking ck.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 10:47 am
From yesterdays Chicago Tribune

“That short-term credit card for cash is maxed out,” Claypool told the school board last month. “It’s maxed out in terms of the maximum collateral that can be loaned against it, it’s bumping up against state law. So the criticality of continuing to balance the budget for that reason is, you know, fundamental.”

For the quickest help CPS needs to cut spending and balance its own budget.

Once there is a balanced budget, Rep. Guzzardi should then introduced a bill to allow CPS to make a substantial increase in its property tax rate. This will help in the longer term to fund its pension liability and other needs.

Comment by Small town taxpayer Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 10:50 am
First of all, the reason CPS teachers were “not in classrooms teaching our children” that day is because there were no classes scheduled. It was a school improvement day.

The reason there is a furlough is because CPS included a major dependency in their budget on the state. Then they backed themselves into the corner by continuing the pension pick-up whose annual cost is almost as much as their current budget gap.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 11:26 am
Doug is slamming the Commission because its a easy target, there is at least one draft bill based on the Commission report that President Cullerton could file as a gut and replace for the shell bill SB 1. It is less than perfect, but it could be debated.

The bigger problem with the EBM approach is the adequacy components of it on a statewide basis which will cost between $3.6 and $6 billion a year more than the current k-12 expenditures. The adequacy components will not be met probably even over a 10 year time frame which the Commission envisioned. That means actual funding estimates to districts of what less than full adequacy means to each of them have to be examined.

So like before once those come out the yelling will start. It comes down to money and whether k-12 equity is worth the taxes that would have to be paid to achieve it. That is not the failure of the Commission, its the failure of the citizens to accept the costs of equity. Or looked at another way, its an educational cost benefit analysis done by tax payers as to whether equity for poor districts is worth the costs to them.

Comment by Rod Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 11:32 am
The Gov. Rauner Commission on School Funding Reform WAS GIVEN a 449 page bill, based on the 27 element “Evidence Based” approach.

See what the Commission Chair, Beth Purvis, told NPR, Feb. 2, 2017 -

Reporter: I remember when the governor established the (Illinois School Funding Reform) Commission, he voiced support for the “Evidence-Based Model,” this plan put forth by the Illinois School Management Alliance, and it was the most talked-about model in the commission. But the report doesn’t specify that as the best plan.

Purvis: I actually think that the report reflects the premise of the Evidence-Based Model, that you need adequacy targets for every district based on the needs of the students in the districts, and that you really need to look at best practices and expert opinion to build those adequacy targets.

And I think even in the appendices, you’ll see a list of possible elements that can be included in that…

Reporter: … and there happens to be 27, just like the Evidence-Based Model.

Purvis: Right. But I also think there are a lot of decisions that members of the General Assembly are going to have to make.

Comment by winners and losers Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 1:32 pm
And ISBE did a complete run on how that 449 page bill would affect EACH school district, but did not publicly release the results (ISBE talked about how it would affect 12 generic school districts in a private meeting on JAN. 27, and during the JAN. 30 Commission meeting, spent two hours explaining how that 449 page bill would affect ONE anonymous school district.

Comment by winners and losers Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 1:38 pm
ck may want us to believe the BigBrain has only been around for two years but many remember his workin’ with the other zillionaires who concluded the path to smarter kids concentrated on makin’ it harder to strike. Bad idea from the get go, but his brainstorm.

Comment by Annonin' Monday, Feb 6, 17 @ 2:30 pm