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ISBE, Democrats push back against Pritzker’s education budget proposal

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Illinois

* Jerry Nowicki at Capitol News Illinois…

llinois State Board of Education officials on Monday made their case for an added $362.1 million to the state’s evidence-based funding formula and $50 million in early childhood education grants, pushing back on the governor’s proposal to keep state K-12 education funding flat next fiscal year. […]

ISBE Superintendent Carmen Ayala told the committee that in fiscal year 2018, there were 168 school districts at or below 60 percent of funding adequacy. Three years later, only 10 districts are at or below that number. […]

If the funding formula is to be successful in driving districts to the 90 percent adequacy target by 2027, Ayala said, the state would need to allocate an added $799 million each year for the next six years. Thus, the $362.1 million increase to the formula is the middle ground, according to ISBE officials.

Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from Suburban Homewood who was a lead negotiator in the House for the evidence-based formula in 2017, said there are “a number of” House Democrats “who are not happy with the governor’s introduced budget” as it relates to the evidence-based funding formula.

He suggested the state should treat the funding increase as it does pension or bond debt, which is considered a baseline expense that other state spending should be built around.

* Related…

* Illinois school districts continue to report teacher shortages

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 9:54 am

Comments

Find the money and I am sure the governor would be happy to oblige.

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 9:58 am
Put something on the table. What are you going to cut or what taxes are you going to raise? Until then, I can not tell you how little your hand wringing means to me.

If you are in any position of authority you shouldn’t get to tear down other people’s plans without simultaneously putting forth one of your own. And I’ll include the governor in that too, he’s done it a lot, but not as much as most legislators do. That’s because we actually expect governors to own things, demand it even, and for some reason we just let legislators bathe us in their hot air.

*Deep breath*

Ok, I’m done now, sorry for the rant, that got just a little bit away from me.

Comment by Perrid Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:12 am
Show me the money. No, I mean that literally. If they want more, they have to find the money. It’s easy to just say “give me more”, but you have to pay for it.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:15 am
No money means even good ideas and recipients do not get funded.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:23 am
==the state would need to allocate an added $799 million==

::cough:: Fair Tax Amendment ::cough::

Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:24 am
I recognize the need just as I recognize the money isn’t there to allocate due to the lingering financial crisis created by the global pandemic and decades of inadequate revenues to fund expenditures.

Comment by Manchester Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:28 am
ISBE still has plenty of cash to pad the payroll, though. No hiring freeze there.

Comment by Birds on the Bat Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:35 am
Apply Congressional relief money? whether its State aid or the $175 billion directly earmarked for schools?

Comment by 1st Ward Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:36 am
@Perrid- so well stated. You really hit every important point, I couldn’t say it better.

Very well done.

=ISBE still has plenty of cash to pad the payroll, though. No hiring freeze there.=

As good a s @Perrid’s comment was, this one is on the other end of the spectrum, silly. You clearly don’t know much about the ISBE or the status of its personnel since the Blago years. The ISBE was one of the first agencies to be hollowed out. There isn’t any padding there because they have very few people. There used to be a word we could use for comments like this one.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 10:53 am
You clearly don’t know much about the ISBE or the status of its personnel since the Blago years.

Lol. You have no idea how wrong you are here.

Comment by Birds on the Bat Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 11:21 am
=== You have no idea how wrong you are here.===

Don’t hide your light under a bushel…

Show your work.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 11:32 am
=Lol. You have no idea how wrong you are here.=

Prove me wrong.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 11:39 am
A 2011 ISBE budget document shows that in FY03, ISBE started the year with 650 employees but were down to 450 by the beginning of FY12. The most recent employment plan posted by ISBE shows they had 418 employees in 2019.

Comment by Still Waiting Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 11:58 am
= You clearly don’t know much about the ISBE or the status of its personnel since the Blago years. The ISBE was one of the first agencies to be hollowed out. =

Wasn’t one of Blago’s State of the State speeches basically spent talking about how ISBE was a Soviet-style bureaucracy? Whether or not that’s true, Blago definitely regarded existing government employees as “the enemy” - much like the guy who pardoned him.

Comment by cover Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 12:08 pm
=Wasn’t one of Blago’s State of the State speeches basically spent talking about how ISBE was a Soviet-style bureaucracy?=

I think that was his 2004 SOTS. That’s when he proposed a new version of ISBE that would report to him. And when he proposed the free books for schoolchildren plan (a state version of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library).

Comment by Essential State Employee Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 12:40 pm
=A 2011 ISBE budget document shows that in FY03, ISBE started the year with 650 employees=

Do you have the FY04 numbers? The start of FY03 would have been the beginning of the Ryan early retirement exodus. Followed by early firings/layoffs once Blago entered office.

Comment by Essential State Employee Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 12:42 pm
ISBE was in need of re-vamping when Blago came in. It was very bloated. Problem was the people he brought in to do it and the manner in which it occurred made it worse. That horrific management carried in to the Quinn admin. Say what you want about Rauner, but the agency stabilized under Supt Smith and that State Board. They were very fiscally minded. The current admin has brought in new levels of management at pretty hefty salaries and the Board and staff are full of Blago/Quinn re-treads and political hacks (look it up). Yes the staffing levels have been cut, but they needed to be. There was a lot of dead weight there.

Comment by Birds on the Bat Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 12:45 pm
=A 2011 ISBE budget document shows that in FY03, ISBE started the year with 650 employees but were down to 450 by the beginning of FY12. The most recent employment plan posted by ISBE shows they had 418 employees in 2019.=

Pretty big drop in employees still required to do the same things and more.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 1:23 pm
Ok so in what way is ISBE “padding the payroll?”

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 2:26 pm
- Birds on the Bat -

LOL

You added ZERO but your opinion.

Facts. Where are they?

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 2:55 pm
ISBE start of year numbers FY03-650, FY04 - 522, FY05 471, FY06 - 487, FY07 - 478, FY08 - 463, FY09 - 475, FY10 - 473, FY11 - 480, FY12 - 450.

Source:

https://www.isbe.net/Documents/2011-fiscal-rpts-november.pdf

Comment by Still Waiting Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 3:07 pm
=Say what you want about Rauner, but the agency stabilized under Supt Smith and that State Board. They were very fiscally minded.=

Ok, now I know you are trolling. I interacted with the ISBE regularly during the Blago, Quinn, Rauner, and current admin.

Rauner, Smith, and Beth Purvis were not one iota better than any of the others. They also accomplished a total of zero of their goals to make it a value added agency instead of a police/’gotcha agency- Tony Smith’s words not mine-

Like all other administrations they added “paper work” not reduced it and all we got in exchange was a reduction in funding.

You have zero credibility.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 3:10 pm
=The current admin has brought in new levels of management at pretty hefty salaries=

Whom are you speaking of? Most of the ISBE department heads are the same. Particularly in finance- Robert Wolf has been there for a long time. That is probably the most impactful department. Who is new and from what department? There were a lot of people who quit under Rauner.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 3:12 pm
- JS Mill -

Yikes, top shelf.

- Birds on the Bat - is trolling on opinion.

Great stuff.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 3:15 pm
77% of districts report a teacher shortage. Tier II is one factor.

Comment by anon2 Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 4:05 pm
The funding formula calls for a $350MM annual increase. There’s $13.2 billion in federal aid coming to Illinois. I think we can give another $362MM for public ed.

Comment by Deep Dish Tuesday, Mar 9, 21 @ 5:07 pm