Gov. George Ryan’s new education spending plan, already under fire from Mayor Richard Daley and top Republican lawmakers, took another hit Wednesday when the Illinois State Board of Education released an analysis showing some poorer districts would take the biggest financial hit while some wealthy ones would benefit.
Chicago Public Schools, for instance, would lose nearly $40 million in state aid, and Chicago Heights schools could lose $1.2 million. Elementary and high schools in Oak Park would gain about $1.7 million.
In DuPage County, West Chicago School District 33–one of the county’s poorest, with a 30 percent poverty level–would lose about $1 million, while the more prosperous Wheaton Warrenville District 200 would see a $2.6 million boost.
The preliminary district-by-district analysis of the governor’s plan tossed fuel onto a fire raging over Ryan’s proposal.
“It’s a nightmare,” said West Chicago Supt. Jon Mink said of a possible $1 million shortfall to his district. “We’re still going to have our bilingual kids and poverty kids, and they still will have to be educated. And now I have to do it with less money. How can the cuts not affect services to kids, especially the kids who need it the most?”
In his budget message last week, Ryan proposed shifting state money from 22 special grant programs into general state aid. Grants targeted for elimination include bilingual, gifted and early-childhood education programs. Ryan said the change would free districts to spend money without the strings attached to grants.
He suggested that the shift would not involve cuts in school funding, a position he defended this week, even as a Tribune analysis indicated that up to $100 million in education spending would be lost.
Officials at the state Bureau of the Budget confirmed this week that a cut of that magnitude could be looming as part of the plan.
Since general state aid is designed to benefit districts with low property values, legislators and educators assumed less-affluent districts would come out ahead under Ryan’s proposal. Ryan reinforced the theory when he promoted his plan, saying it would help the “have-nots.”
But Wednesday’s state board analysis suggests otherwise. The collar counties would gain about $32.7 million overall, according to the document, while Chicago, suburban Cook and Downstate schools would lose a combined $109 million.
At a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday, Ryan again defended his plan and said he is not yet convinced it would harm the neediest school districts.
Still, as details of the plan slowly trickled out, school officials warned they might have to lay off teachers, cut programs or seek to raise taxes if lawmakers approve Ryan’s plan.
Supt. Lynne Rauch of Schaumburg Community Consolidated School District 54 said the estimated $3.5 million loss to her district would mean cutting gifted, bilingual and reading-improvement programs and at least 59 positions.
“I can’t imagine the Chicagoland area standing for this,” she said.
Dorothy Helsel, superintendent of the impoverished Chicago Heights School District 170, offered a similar bleak outlook after hearing that $800,000 in state money could disappear from her budget.
“Anything of that magnitude would significantly cut into the heart of what we’re trying to do with and for kids,” she said.
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Bloom Township High School District 206 in Chicago Heights stands to lose $366,000.
Impoverished districts are not the only ones that would take a hit. Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 in Buffalo Grove would lose $365,000.
“It’s going to kill [the district],” said Charles Cohen, District 102 business manager. “There’s no way this district can continue to run the programs it currently runs.”
Even in districts that would see a windfall, educators are not enamored with Ryan’s plan.
Supt. Gary Catalani of Wheaton Warrenville School District 200 said the funding swings generated by Ryan’s proposal highlight the state’s archaic method of funding schools based almost entirely on property wealth.
“It’s not how we should fund schools,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out something that makes it fair for everybody.”