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Illinois’ financial mess is hurting almost every entity in the state, and school districts have felt the pain in their budgets as much as any.
Transportation or special education reimbursements have not been paid this year, for example, and when the Illinois State Board of Education’s annual financial rankings came out in mid-April, some districts pointed right back at the state.
Meridian’s ranking dropped to “early warning,” with a score of 2.8 out of 4. Rankings are based on revenue to fund balance, expenditure to revenue ratio, and days cash on hand.
“The way I look at it, of course we’d like to have (a score) somewhere in the 3s, but we’ve been using some of our reserves because the state has underfunded us,” Meridian Superintendent Dan Brue said. “It’s ironic they come out with these rankings when our rankings go down because we’re not getting the money from the state like they promised us.” […]
State revenue accounts for about 35.5 percent of Meridian’s budget, Brue said, and the state owes the district more than $412,000.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:38 pm
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A property tax freeze will solve all these problems. Oh wait, was it term limits? No, it is overhauling workers compensation. Or was it right to work?
Comment by Huh? Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:48 pm
I finally figured it out - busting AFSCME will solve all of the school funding problems.
Comment by Huh? Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:50 pm
Thank Loving God Edwardsville area district 7 passed Prop E a property tax increase to protect our most valuable community asset, our school system. It passed by a good margin and shows that even in right leaning Madison county we know what is important and what to protect.
Comment by Honeybear Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:54 pm
Rauner’s greatest accomplishment is promising more money for K-12.
Actually paying it is a different story.
I wonder if Downstate voters, as those most reliant on state government, are ever going to figure out how badly they’re getting played by this guy.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:55 pm
Schools are just starting to feel a pinch that’s only going to get worse. You can’t honestly compare what they’re going through to the destruction of social services. It’s not even close. Unfortunately, none of this gets better until Gov. Ruiner is gone.
Comment by stormy Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:10 pm
But haven’t you heard, it’s the Comptrollers fault. The governor signed the ed budget she’s the one holdin’ the schools hostage! That’s how he’ll explain it to the voters. Time for him to go live on one of his ranches in Montana or Wyoming and go be governor there.
Comment by Hit Em With the Hein Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:11 pm
I’m sure that Beth Purvis will solve this crisis/s
Comment by Flynn's mom Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:12 pm
Honeybear, as a District 7 resident, I agree. Cannot fathom that it took two tries to pass. The school district is the engine of the are and has been demonstrably harmed by the State’s actions (State has cut GSA contributions by about half in less than a decade)
I’m sure term limits or Right to Work is going to heal everything, though.
Comment by illini97 Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:17 pm
If we could only get the teachers to become a volunteer workforce (all with expert experience and at least Master’s Degrees), then we’d have enough for the buses. Heavy heavy snark.
Comment by AnonymousOne Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:21 pm
=Schools are just starting to feel a pinch that’s only going to get worse. You can’t honestly compare what they’re going through to the destruction of social services.=
This has been going on for almost 7 years, it isn’t “just starting”. For schools it is death by a thousand cuts. First it was reduced GSA (prorated) and now it is massive MCAT cuts. We are down almost 30% from last years funding. With so called “fully funded GSA”.
For most of us it isn’t as bad a social services and higher ed because we had reserves. Bit those reserves are dwindling.
We reduced our staffing by nearly 20% and cut $1.5 million annually from our operational budget. last year we had a $200,000 surplus after 4 years of reductions. This year it would have been $400,000 but now it will be a $400,000 deficit.
Our reserves are all but gone. Still, other districts have already been borrowing to keep the doors open. I would guess that number is as high as 25% this year.
If you add those that are seeking a line of credit or tax anticipation warrants as a precaution, you may be as high as 40%.
That is an educated guess though.
It is ironic that the State of Illinois that cannot get its financial house in order is actually rating our finances! Very Catch-22 like.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:36 pm
Let us set up a Rauner school formula reform commission, chaired by Beth Purvis, to pretend that THE problem is the “broken” formula.
Then Manar/Barickman/Davis introduce competing bills that pretend that THE problem is the “broken” formulas.
And now suddenly local school district superintendents ask - Where is the money?
(after saying for years we need a new formula)
Just wait until the Illinois General Assembly passes school funding formula “reform” and the Governor with Beth Purvis by his side has a fabulous bill signing ceremony.
The question will still be - Where is the money?
THE question all along has been - Where is the money?
When the CURRENT formulas give $218 per student in General State Aid to the wealthy districts, and over $4,000 per student to the poor districts, when the maximum amount of GSA to the poor districts has been frozen for 9 years (since 2008) Manar can travel the State saying the formulas are “broken” and people believe him.
Nothing will change until Illinois actually funds the school formulas for poor districts.
But everyone is very good at shifting the blame to the formulas that Illinois has NOT funded for poor schools for the last 9 years.
Comment by winners and losers Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:37 pm
==- wordslinger - Friday, May 5, 17 @ 2:55 pm:==
Doubt it
Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, May 5, 17 @ 3:50 pm
=When the CURRENT formulas give $218 per student in General State Aid to the wealthy districts, and over $4,000 per student to the poor districts, when the maximum amount of GSA to the poor districts has been frozen for 9 years (since 2008) Manar can travel the State saying the formulas are “broken” and people believe him.
Nothing will change until Illinois actually funds the school formulas for poor districts.=
Your math and definitions are a bit off.
School on the Flat Grant formula receive $218 per pupil and MCATs.
Those that fall into the Flat Grant are among the wealthiest, in terms of locally available resources (EAV).
There is relatively small group of schools that fall into the Alternative Grant Formula.
Most schools are in the Foundation Grant formula.
And even more rare are schools that get most of their funding through PPRT.
Foundation formula schools do not get $4,000 per pupil. We are a Foundation formula district and we get roughly $2,700 per pupil. (That number includes the Poverty Grant funding we receive) The maximum is $6119 and, as you accurately stated, that number is nearly a decade old and thousands behind the EFAB recommended level which is now over $9,000.
We get $570 per pupil identified by DHS for poverty funding. The range for poverty funding is $355 to $2,994 per pupil unless your district has a factor of 1.00 for poverty and then it is for every student that is enrolled. The range is determined by both number and density (%) of poverty.
That is how district like Cicero 99 generate so much funding. In fact, so much so that even during the proration days they were running annual budget surpluses exceeding $10 million.
The maximum amount to “poor schools” through GSA is $9113 per pupil not $4,000. The poverty grant money is also based on enrolled numbers of students in poverty versus Average Daily Attendance. There are other funds that poor schools also receive from the state as well as significant federal dollars.
Simply putting money int the current formula and actually paying the promised amount would change the financial outlook for schools dramatically.
But the notion that “poor” schools have not been funded is not entirely accurate. The state sends a significantly higher amount of funding to poor communities and their schools than it does everyone else. Poor communities do not always mean poor schools.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 5, 17 @ 4:36 pm
Poverty grant money is money paid to districts in addition to their funds from the Funding Grant Formulas (over and above).
Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 5, 17 @ 4:38 pm