Proposed budget boosts school funding

Members of the Illinois House let out a sigh of relief as they passed a controversial budget plan Thursday that would provide nearly $600 million more for public schools.

But many education advocates expressed dismay with the spending plan, which they said fell far short of adequately funding Illinois schools.

The Senate had yet to vote on the House's $59 billion budget proposal as of late Thursday night. It was supposed to vote later and then send the budget back to the House for final approval. But House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) sent his members home for the night about 7:30 p.m., saying the Senate was changing the budget and hadn't told him why.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich indicated that he would not sign any budget that failed to include money for capital improvements, which the House bill lacks.

The 9 percent spending increase on education in the House bill isn't the long-term solution to school-funding problems that many people expected when the legislative session began.

"We missed a real opportunity here," Dave Piccioli, lobbyist with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, told a Senate committee.

The additional school money, which would bring total statewide spending on education to more than $9 billion this year, will help struggling school districts. Most of the new education dollars will go to increase minimum per-pupil spending by $400 -- raising the floor to roughly $5,700 per child.

School districts will also be eligible for an additional $154 million allocated for expenses related to special education programs, transportation, free meals and textbooks. And a $25 million increase will help support early childhood programs.

But advocates of education funding reform say taxpayers shouldn't be fooled into thinking the extra money will put a dent in the funding crises that many school districts face.

"It's more of the same. It clearly doesn't meet the need," said Ralph Martire, director of the non-profit Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, noting that the House plan has no more money for school capital expenses nor any property tax relief.

A state-sponsored education funding advisory board determined that it would take an additional $2.2 billion annually to adequately fund Illinois' public schools. Such an increase would boost minimum spending by roughly $1,000 per student and create a fund for more generous poverty grants.

"Anything less than that recommendation is not enough," Thornton Township High School District 205 board member Sharon Voliva said. "We've (District 205) got a bare-bones curriculum. And our students are never going to catch up because they get so much less than kids in other districts."

 

Contributing: AP

Angela Caputo may be reached at
acaputo@dailysouthtown.com
or (708) 633-5993.