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* Tracy Swartz, Dan Petrella and Karen Ann Cullotta at the Tribune…
The state of Illinois will distribute $87.5 million to hundreds of school districts that were underpaid because of a “coding error” — while seeking repayment from Chicago Public Schools, which mistakenly got the funds.
The appropriation is part of the $46.5 billion spending plan lawmakers passed Saturday. The Illinois State Board of Education said a contractor made a “coding error” in the spring of 2018 during the initial implementation of a new state school funding formula.
As a result, 14 school systems are owed between $1 million and $5 million, while 565 are due up to $100,000 according to ISBE. In total, 762 school systems were underpaid over the past four years.
Meanwhile, the state is trying to recoup the $87 million it mistakenly paid CPS, its largest school district. ISBE said 52 other school systems were overpaid by a total of $3,396 during the affected period, and it will try to recover funds from districts that received at least $10 more than they should have.
$10? It’ll cost more to process those collections.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:31 am
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Few schools get what they actually need from the state, and Chicago needs every dollar they can get. The state should let the whole thing go.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:38 am
So you’re telling me this budget is balanced, pays off debts, sets money aside for emergencies, funds the police, provides tax relief AND TAKE MONEY AWAY FROM CPS and the Republicans still voted against it? LOL.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:39 am
==the state is trying to recoup the $87 million it mistakenly paid CPS==
The state should just deduct that amount from their payment into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to cover the employer pension normal cost. CPS can pick up the remainder.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:40 am
” … a contractor made a “coding error” … .”
So … we’re dependent upon contractors to make School Aid payments?
Comment by Anyone Remember Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:41 am
Why can’t they make it up in reductions in future payments to CPS & others overpaid?
Comment by Blake Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:42 am
===their payment into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund===
It was not the teachers’ fault, yet you want to hurt educators, and of course it’s about pensions, your usual angst.
It probably felt good to type, thou.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:42 am
An error of 0.05% isn’t too bad.
>52 other school systems were overpaid by a total of $3,396
It might be easier to just identify it and put in a ledger entry to balance this out in the next state disbursement, than trying to ‘collect’. Doing this inefficiently now isn’t a code error, it’s a decision.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:43 am
The proverbial “mistakes happen” seems to apply I guess. I hope any fiscal consequences associated with the error are fully compensated by the state on both sides of the mistake. As to the CPS, a repayment plan is the reasonable answer.
Comment by H-W Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:43 am
interesting that ISBE one abut this for some time and didn’t have something ready to go out to everyone when it was made public.
Comment by frustrated GOP Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:46 am
“I just wish when the Rauner administration made this error they had corrected it so we would not find ourselves in this position today,” he said.”
Blame Rauner.
It still works.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:47 am
What’s the legal term for Finders Keepers?
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:56 am
Anyone Remember, yes you read that right. The State has serious management issues.
Comment by Al Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:57 am
==It was not the teachers’ fault==
No kidding, which is why I said “CPS can pick up the remainder.” I didn’t say skip the payment. Have a cup of coffee.
Why go through the hassle of extracting $87M from CPS when you’re going to have to pay them $250M pretty soon anyway. Subtract the difference and call it a day.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:58 am
==52 other school systems were overpaid by a total of $3,396==
An average of $65.00 each.
That’s a rounding error. Let it go.
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:58 am
Bruce (no not him), doesn’t it say in the constitution that possession is 9/10 of the law?
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:59 am
It took them 3 to 4 years to figure out the mistake?
I understand the importance of law and the importance of following the appropriations, but perhaps the legislature or Governor could act to avoid making our government look ridiculous.
Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:05 am
===No kidding, which is why I said===
Why even mention pensions?
Is it a tick you have? Can’t help it? A one trick pony?
I mean, it’s tiring reading that pensions, labor, they are the evil, and here again, “punish labor, it’s about pensions”
It’s not, you passively acknowledge it, and I need coffee?
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:08 am
== Few schools get what they actually need from the state, and Chicago needs every dollar they can get. The state should let the whole thing go ==
If the CPS property tax rate was the same as what I pay here in the western burbs CPS would be in much better financial shape. They chose not to do that, fine, but they should pay back what wasn’t theirs, to begin with.
Comment by OneMan Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:34 am
=Few schools get what they actually need from the state, and Chicago needs every dollar they can get. The state should let the whole thing go.=
Um…no. CPS has been getting a disproportionate share of state funding for decades. I know, some won’t like to hear that, but it is true.
$100,000 is a lot of money to some districts like ours. Unlike CPS, many districts have been shorted and continue to be shorted in transportation. While the state talks up EBF and other increases the state is not fully funding transportation. Last year we were funded at 81% of entitlement. In the bad years it was 25%. The state has gotten away with it, even though it is a mandate, because it most significantly affects rural districts. CPS gets a cut of transportation spending right off the top and then everyone else divvies up the remaining money.
So, we want our money. For so many reasons.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:40 am
Owning up to an error and trying to correct it is welcomed. The error rate is surprising considering the 2018 payments were complex and time sensitive.
Comment by Eyeball Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:46 am
” … a contractor made a “coding error” … .”
Sounds like the State ought to be going after the consultants errors and omissions insurance.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:57 am
=So … we’re dependent upon contractors to make School Aid payments?=
9 out of 10 people I talk to or deal with at the ISBE are “consultants” from outside. Any audit is subbed out to private companies. Some from out of state. I dealt with an auditor two summers ago that did not understand the differences in Illinois rules and Indiana (where she was based.)
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 10:59 am
@- City Zen - Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 9:40 am:
==the state is trying to recoup the $87 million it mistakenly paid CPS==
===The state should just deduct that amount from their payment into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to cover the employer pension normal cost.===
Chicago has it’s own teacher pension system and it is a property tax supported system, not part of the state system. Unless something changed?
Comment by DuPage Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:20 am
==Um…no. CPS has been getting a disproportionate share of state funding for decades. I know, some won’t like to hear that, but it is true.==
A disproportionate share…of a too small pie.
As a former downstate school board member, I’m very aware of the lack of state funding for all schools in the state. As I wrote above =Few schools get what they actually need from the state, and Chicago needs every dollar they can get. The state should let the whole thing go.=
The state should make whole the districts that did not get what they should have, but it should not be clawing back already spent funds from districts that are stretched thin due to chronic underfunding.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:34 am
==CPS has been getting a disproportionate share of state funding for decades==
This. Those block grants were quite lucrative.
==Unless something changed?==
The state is required to pick up the normal pension cost for CPS teachers and pay that into CTPF. It’s like an offset for Chicago residents paying state income tax which funds downstate/TRS payments. This was a sticking point during the Rahm/Rauner years: the state was shorting this amount but CPS had been receiving more than their fair share of education funding via those block grants. Problem has been resolved.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:48 am
Prediction - the state is not going to get that $87 million back.
Comment by well... Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:49 am
===normal pension cost===
I’ve had my coffee.
Your continued idea of pensions abd this error is your continuing that One Note Nelly need to look for ways to blame unions, pensions, and labor in an overall.
Now, after my coffee, how did pensions figure in to this error.
Take your time, I’m taking copious notes.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:51 am
==a contractor made a “coding error”==
Was the contractor Richard Pryor from Superman III?
Comment by Jocko Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:53 am
These payments are based on formulas. How do you get shorted one million or five million and not notice? Also, how do you get 87 million more than you should and not notice?
Comment by Groucho Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 11:58 am
==Was the contractor==
In the background, some software engineer named Michael Bolton could be heard complaining about some no-talent clown with his same name.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 12:06 pm
“the differences in Illinois rules and Indiana”
JS - I understand your pain. 10 years ago, I was on your consultant’s side of the table. I was smart enough to look up in the Indiana manual to see what I considered, based on my Illinois experience, to be a poor design, was allowable under Indiana guidelines.
While I didn’t changed my opinion, I had withhold my comments and go with the manual.
From experience, consultants have excised the word “No” from their vocabulary. They will do anything the client wants, even to the detriment of the project and client.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 12:07 pm
How do you blame a current problem on a contractor (non-state employee?) for a coding error back in 2018? No person or group has responsibility to check contracts, codes and formulas on a yearly basis? Seriously? If I had tried that during state reviews the reviewer would have marked non-compliance and dinged us.
Comment by zatoichi Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 12:29 pm
=A disproportionate share…of a too small pie.=
Yes and no. But I get your point and understand your clarification.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 12:36 pm
Uh, who made that coding error? Or was it made in a vacuum? And who retained that contractor who made the coding error?
No one is responsible when it is impossible to blame Rauner under this administration.
And how much will it cost the state to get that money back and redistribute it correctly? No union is complaining that work could have been performed internally?
OK then.
Comment by Louis G Atsaves Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 1:34 pm
==Now, after my coffee, how did pensions figure in to this error.==
Fair enough. According to the comptroller’s website, every 2-3 weeks, the State Board of Education sends CPS a check for around $78 million for “awards and grants.” So how about the state skips one payment and deducts the difference from the next payment?
The state is made whole and CPS doesn’t have to write a check. And since the state’s pension payments are $21 million per month (again, comptroller’s site), the state gets its money back much sooner.
You were right: taking money directly from CPS payroll works out much better than withholding it from the pension payment.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 2:25 pm
===And since the state’s pension payments===
You shoulda been a teacher, this obsessive need to be jealous.
===money directly from CPS payroll===
Now you want the current teachers to suffer?
I’ve fed you enough.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 2:30 pm
I am a bit confused by all these comments to be quite honest. This is simple yet very complex issue. ISBE’s contractor made the error while coding for enrollment not CPS. Now, not saying CPS hasn’t had their share of mistakes but this one falls on the agency. The question folks should be asking is how can ISBE ask for CPS to repay? If ISBE wants CPS to repay from their EBF allotment then that could result in a lawsuit against ISBE seeing that districts base funding minimums are held harmless. So again, I don’t think it’s as simple as just pay the state back, the state made the error. Now whether or not CPS wasn’t honest about their enrollment with ISBE is another story, something we should also be paying attention to. One other note is this error will cause a huge tier shift for many many districts. Just some thoughts.
Comment by Monday Monday, Apr 11, 22 @ 4:09 pm