For the first time in a decade, Illinois public schools could begin a school year with less state money than they had the previous year, under the budget proposal unveiled by Gov. George Ryan Monday.
The governor’s plan for the 2003 school year sets aside nearly $5.2 billion in general funds for elementary and high school classrooms, about $170 million less than was set aside at the beginning of last school year. Higher education would lose about $62 million under the governor’s austere proposal.
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News of the planned reductions brought mixed responses.
Some officials said they were happy education did not take a bigger hit in a tight budget year. Others complained that a decrease in state funds would exacerbate budget woes, which already have forced them to slash teaching positions, scale back after-school programs and shelve construction projects.
“Academically and morally this is the wrong thing to do,” said Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan. “Any decrease in state education spending will be extraordinarily difficult for us to absorb, and will negatively impact teaching and learning across the state.”
Duncan said Chicago schools would lose an estimated $36 million under Ryan’s proposal. He said he plans to meet with other school superintendents and lobby lawmakers to rollback the proposed reductions.
At first glance, Ryan’s proposal seems to slice only $60.5 million from the $5 billion that flows to elementary and high school classrooms. But the state, by law, has to contribute $111 million more to the teacher pension fund next year than it did this year. That money comes out of the funding for classrooms.
Slashing education was a difficult decision for Ryan, who fancies himself as the “education governor.” In the last three years, he has pumped 51 percent of all new revenue into schools.
But, with the state facing a $1.4 billion revenue shortfall, Ryan said he had no choice. Lawmakers in at least 15 other states also have decreased education spending to balance state budgets.
Officials with the Illinois State Board of Education and with the Board of Higher Education breathed a sigh of relief.
“In the overall context of reduced state spending, the budget proposed today by Gov. Ryan treats K-12 education fairly,” said State Supt. of Education Respicio F. Vazquez. “Reductions in spending … are difficult to accept. However … a serious effort has been made to spread the `pain’ of reduced spending fairly among school districts.”
Board officials said Ryan’s elementary and high school budget includes an across-the-board 3.5 percent reduction in grant programs, such as bilingual education and reading, and a 10 percent cut for “mandated categoricals,” such as special education and transportation.
The governor’s new budget does not include his earlier, and unpopular, proposal to roll grant programs into one big pot of money to be distributed based on student enrollment.
Don Sevener, spokesman for the board of higher education, also praised Ryan’s proposal. But he said board officials wish the governor had not sliced $50 million out of a scholarship program for financially struggling students.
“We think it’s a fair budget,” Sevener said. “But our choice would have been to cut some grant programs that have less direct impact on students.”
There was one bright spot for education. Ryan’s plan calls for $1 billion in new bonds to prop up the state’s popular elementary and high school construction program. The 3-year-old program, which helped build 250 new schools and add 12,000 new classrooms throughout Illinois, has dropped to $70 million this year.
“Nobody in the education community is going to be happy with the cuts but we have to share in the pain,” said Don Weber, superintendent of Naperville School District 203, which is facing a $2.1 million deficit.