Fully Funding the Evidence-Based Formula: 2020 Update
Release: August 4, 2020
Fully Funding the Evidence-Based Formula: 2020 Update” is an update to the “Fully Funding the Evidence-Based Formula: Four Scenarios” report from 2019. The updated 2020 report highlights three different funding scenarios, identifying for each scenario how long, and how much money would be required to fund an adequate and equitable education as identified by the Evidence-Based Funding Formula.
The Impact of Underfunding the Evidence-Based Funding Formula
Release: June 24, 2020
Beginning in 2017, Illinois decision makers replaced one of the least-equitable K-12 public education funding formulas in the country with the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act, or EBF. The EBF commits to implementing best practice in school funding by investing a year-to-year increased Minimum Target Level of $300 million each fiscal year. Illinois met the Minimum Target Level for increased year-to-year state funding of K-12 education in each of the first three fiscal years—FY 2018, 2019, and 2020—during which the EBF was implemented. That streak now stands to be broken, however, as the FY 2021 General Fund Budget, which recently passed, does not increase K-12 funding under the EBF, but rather holds it level with FY 2020.
The Impact of Underfunding the Evidence-Based Funding Formula report analyzes the steps the EBF takes when the Minimum Target Level is not satisfied and how limited or no new Tier funding would impact districts by Tier, income level, race, and geography. The report also analyzes how state funding would be allocated if the state is unable to hold funding level with the prior fiscal year, resulting in a reduction in funding for the EBF.
A Case Study on Economic Development Agreements
Release: May 16, 2020
CTBA, commissioned by the Daily Herald and ProPublica, performed an analysis of the 1989 economic development agreement (“EDA”) entered into by Hoffman Estates with Sears, Roebuck, and Company (“Sears”). The purpose of the analysis was to determine how effective the EDA proved to be and to quantify the impact the resulting development had on Hoffman Estates. The results of the analysis were utilized in a series of articles published by the Daily Herald and ProPublica.
Using a difference-in-differences model, the following report compares the economic performance of Hoffman Estates to a control group in order to isolate and identify the impact of development as a result of the EDA. The results suggest that the impact of the development generated by the Sears EDA was temporary, with a short-term spike in property values but no lasting impact on the growth trajectory of property value in Hoffman Estates, while failing to generate the job growth promised by the EDA.
Potential Impact of a Property Tax Freeze on School Funding
Release: May 13, 2020
Illinois’ overreliance on property taxes is a result of historic shift of funding K-12 Education from the state-level to the local-level. While many would benefit from a temporary property tax freeze, there are also costs associated with a property tax freeze—particularly when it comes to funding an adequate education for millions of Illinois school children. A property tax freeze could pose substantial costs to students across the state by limiting the amount of funding districts could receive compared to the current law in which there is no property tax freeze. Using 2019 Illinois Report Card and average year-to-year growth in: (i) K-12 funding under the EBF; (ii) property tax revenue; and (iii) funding of mandated categoricals, the short report, Potential Impact of a Property Tax Freeze on School Funding, highlights some of those consequences that a property tax freeze could have, not only on school funding, but along racial lines, as well.
Setting the Record Straight on Illinois’ Fiscal Shortcomings
Release: May 5, 2020
This report shows how the data make it quite clear that: Illinois incurred pension debt—under both Republicans and Democrats-- to mask its fiscal problems, not to pay irresponsibly high benefits; Illinois is not a high spending state, and in fact has cut spending on services in real terms by more than 23% since FY2000; that over $9 out of every $10 Illinois, and frankly every other state in America, spends on services goes to the four core areas of Education (including Pre-K, K-12, and Higher Ed), Healthcare, Human Services and Public Safety—meaning those are the services which are imperiled if the feds don’t come through with a significant relief package for state governments suffering revenue loss from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; and the Pritzker Administration has actually pushed a number of fiscal initiatives that are actually responsible and counter some of the poor practices of the past.