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A fight over relative crumbs

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Illinois

* Phil Kadner puts this SB 1 fight into some perspective…

The Illinois Legislature passed a school funding bill — separate from the rest of the state budget — but did not send the legislation to the governor for his approval.

That’s because the governor has threatened to amend the school funding bill by eliminating money for the Chicago Public Schools, which he claims is a CPS pension bailout. That could be anywhere from $100 million to $250 million, or about 2 to 3 percent of the total state spending on schools.

That’s right. This major battle in Springfield is about next to nothing, which is quite something. […]

In addition, the governor’s own school finance reform commission estimated the schools need $3.5 billion to $6 billion more from the state, which isn’t going to happen. […]

But the governor has now chosen to pit Chicago against the rest of the state, using school funding to gain political advantage. Of course, the governor says he loves the children.

So much dung gets tossed around in Springfield when it comes to education that Illinois schoolchildren should be required to wear hazmat suits.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:12 pm

Comments

This isn’t one side pitting different geographies against each other, this is both sides doing it.

Whether you do it by threatening a veto to get “our money” from “them”, or you write a bill that treats one district better than every other, the end result is the same.

Nobody is being the grown up who won’t stoop to this level, and that is the problem. Chicago editorials blame the Governor, downstate and suburban editorials blame the Democrats. Nothing new here.

Comment by m Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:24 pm
This isn’t about the money, or education.

It’s about the Turnaround Agenda. It always is.

Comment by walker Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:27 pm
Preach it, Brother Phil!

Where is Chance the Rapper?

What happened to #DoYourJob ?

Well, Rauner refused to do his job, so the legislature had to do it for him.

Now, he wants to tear it all down.

Comment by Juvenal Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:28 pm
It could be over a buck fifty. It’s a grudge match. Two very different sets of stakes; that of millions of people vs. that of 2 people.

Puke.

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:33 pm
M, only one person is talking about blowing up school funding by vetoing a bill that he says gave him 90% of what he wanted.

Looks here like there’s plenty of Downstate support for SB1.

http://fundingilfuture.org/supporters/

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:37 pm
& $600 for a toilet set on a $36 million Lockheed P-3 Orion anti-submarine maritime turboprop aircraft is even less than 2% - far less… but stinks badly just the same.

Comment by Kornfed Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:39 pm
The belief that $250 million is relative crumbs epitomizes the budgetary crisis and overall fiscal mismanagement in Illinois

Comment by mod Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:39 pm
=== It’s about the Turnaround Agenda. It always is. ===

And, the huge ego of the TA’s author. An ego bruised by a setback of his own making.

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:42 pm
Can Rauner say anything besides NO? I’d love for him to articulate some proposed path forward, solutions to any existing problems or even answer questions from a real journalist.

Comment by Trapped in the 'burbs Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:46 pm
Phil- that’s 250 million every year. It’s sentiments like yours which has made Illinois destitute

Comment by Sue Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:51 pm
Unfortunately Chicago is the boogie man for the rest of the state. Many downstate people feel that Chicago gets the best and downstate gets crumbs. Rauner is using it to stir up trouble and using it as a smoke screen to hide what he really wants to do. It’s just a ploy. He’s using it to torment the school districts in the state. This guys really a piece of work.

Comment by Ginhouse Tommy Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:56 pm
–Phil- that’s 250 million every year. It’s sentiments like yours which has made Illinois destitute–

Way to go, Phil.

As Sue and Mod are trying to cray-splain to you, this battle over .6 of 1% of GRF spending is the ballgame when it comes to fiscal conservatism.

They said the same thing when Rauner was running up $15B in GRF operating debt, which represented 41% of GRF spending.

I kid. They did not.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:58 pm
mod and Sue, if the Governor were proposing to not spend the $250 million then your point would be a bit more convincing.

But instead he is making his pitch of taking $250 million away from CPS and redistributing it everywhere else, thus having zero impact on the budgetary burden.

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 2:59 pm
Why not s it all of you are so willing to dig Chicago out from its own mismanagement. Look back at the CPS funding levels in 1994. The fund was funded at more then 200 percent of liabilities. Chicago raided its pension funds while Springfield looked the other way. Daley caused this not taxpayers south of I 80

Comment by Sue Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:07 pm
100 percent

Comment by Sue Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:08 pm
Phil Kadner is correct the money going to CPS is not major when one looks at the big picture, CPS has a $5.4 billion budget. So all the more reason for President Cullerton to simply forward the bill to the Governor for the amendatory veto and then see if he has the actual votes to override the AV. If not, he certainly did everything he could for funding CPS. In the long run this funding will not fiscally save CPS, their enrollment declines are too steep and so will the cuts be over time in state aid. CPS will have to take even more extreme austerity measures in the future with or without these additional dollars.

Comment by Rod Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:10 pm
Considering Chicago’s rat infestation, should we be surprised they like their crumbs?

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:12 pm
The $250 million is small compare to the damage it represents to the state as a whole. The infighting is hurting the City of Chicago, if the city loses the confidence of the parents sending their kids to public schools after its taken decades to built them up, you could see whole neighborhoods destroyed. You destroy Chicago you destroy Illinois, is that really what people or the governor want? I’ve lived in this city all my life, lately I’ve been hearing the words,” it may be time to leave”, that hasn’t happened since the 70s. Its not about taxes its about playing with kids futures. Shame on anyone who encourages this destruction.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:16 pm
Sue, in 1995, Daley wanted more money for CPS. The Republicans then passed legislation that allowed CPS to skip its pension payments instead of giving them more money.

Democrats should have put a stop to that practice far sooner than they did, and Daley’s hands are definitely not clean, but it was the Republicans who gave Daley the framework to do that.

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:19 pm
So a little dung-hit-the-fan thought.

CPS will be down 8000 kids this year, and 11,000 last year. At $5k per kid that is nearly $100 million lighter load on their budgeting.

Is that accounted for? Have they made the staffing adjustments for this? (Last year’s numbers showed they had a 10:1 ratio of kids to staff.) Poor CPS and their windfalls/special block grants all around.

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:21 pm
cdog - CPS wants to be held harmless before their students harm them by un-enrolling. CPS is begging to set that bar now before the inevitable enrollment drop come Fall.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:41 pm
Oops…3:41 was me.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:42 pm
=M, only one person is talking about blowing up school funding by vetoing a bill that he says gave him 90% of what he wanted.=

You might recall when Andy Manar said his bill was 95% the same as the Republican bill.

Meanwhile the Democrats have spent 2 months on #signsb1, but have refused to #sendsb1

So only one side is wrong when they choose to not accept 90%+ and choose to hold up the process? Gotcha.

Comment by m Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:44 pm
edog CPS has been reducing its work force steadily for years now. In 2010 CPS had 42,082 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by 2017 CPS had 31,228 FTE positions inclusive of those in charter schools. (data comes from CPS budget books that can be viewed on the CPS website)

It has not been sufficient to offset the situation the district is in due to the rapid decline in enrollment. The enrollment decline is even now hitting CPS charter schools. CPS has gone to the max allowed by the property tax cap every year. CPS has not held the line on wage increases due to Mayoral fear of teacher’s strikes, but it hasn’t given away the house either. CPS has made many bad choices, had some corrupt leaders, but the math of the situation is what it is.

Comment by Rod Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 3:50 pm
@3:41 that makes a lot of sense. Once again CPS gets a windfall.

Rod, I had not gone back that far on the numbers. Sounds like the AV should include some language to protect Chicagoans and state-wide residents from any residual windfalls to CPS as their enrollment continues to crater. Also, I did read some DNA articles about CPS’ last contract negotiations. Wow, they’re nuts.

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 4:00 pm
cdog, both the current and proposed funding formulas take enrollment into account.

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 4:15 pm
It’s nice to see some of you willing to throw CPS under the bus just so you can stick it to them. Same view the Governor has. He (and you) aren’t thinking about the children. You’re acting like children because you don’t like CPS.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 4:16 pm
==CPS has not held the line on wage increases due to Mayoral fear of teacher’s strikes, but it hasn’t given away the house either.==

CPS ended the pension pick-up, but only for new hires. But then CPS agreed to give those new hires a 7% salary increase because they don’t get the pick-up, so they end up spending just as much as they did before.

I’m not sure CPS knows how to save money.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 4:22 pm
==It’s nice to see some of you willing to throw CPS under the bus just so you can stick it to them.==

If I may refer to the “crumbs” reference in this post, the amount being fought over is about 3% of CPS’ budget…indeed a minute fraction of the state budget but also a small fraction of the district budget. So a whole school district in a wealthy metropolis will collapse over 3% funding? That’s why I don’t buy the “under the bus” argument. It’s not like CPS gets nothing. And we haven’t even brought in federal dollars into the discussion, something CPS hugely benefits from.

Quite frankly, I’d like to find a middle road here as well. This is all confusing. How about the state provides half the contested amount and the other half in escrow until we figure this out? Or until fall enrollment numbers come out?

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 25, 17 @ 4:35 pm