Illinois should contribute $6,405 per student to educate its schoolchildren next school year–almost $1,500 more than it spends now–an influential group of state education advisers recommended Monday.
The Education Funding Advisory Board stopped short of saying how to pay for that increase, estimated at $2.3 billion, and declined to engage in the politically dicey debate of how to fund schools.
Still, the board’s recommendation adds an important element to the school-finance debate that is growing more intense in Springfield and around the state as most school districts struggle with deficits.
Voters go to the polls Tuesday to consider nearly 100 referendum proposals to raise local taxes for school operations or issue bonds for school building projects, mostly in the suburbs around the Chicago area.
On Wednesday a state Senate panel will review proposals to overhaul the way Illinois pays for schools, including increasing the state income tax and reducing reliance on local property taxes that create disparities between wealthy and poor districts.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich opposes raising income or sales taxes, and last week proposed expanding gambling in Illinois to provide another $300 million for schools. But even that figure, coupled with $140 million previously recommended by the governor, falls short of the increase proposed Monday by the advisory board that he appointed.
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Still, the board’s recommendation is a credible one that “we hope will buttress the governor’s efforts to put more money into the foundation level,” said Elliot Regenstein, Blagojevich’s director of education reform.
The “foundation level” is the key measure of the state’s support for public schools, the basic aid that should be guaranteed every child. The figure does not include local property taxes that largely fund schools, state grants for special programs or federal dollars.
The Education Funding Advisory Board arrived at a foundation level of $6,405 per student for 2005-06 by using a complex model that evaluates how much it takes to run schools efficiently and ensure children perform at grade level and above. The analysis also took into consideration annual increases in salaries and benefits that school districts have to pay.
The per-student aid figure this school year–$4,964–is a “national embarrassment,” said Bindu Batchu, campaign manager for a statewide initiative to reform school finances.
“I think it shows that we are in an abysmal situation in this state, where we are shortchanging children across the state in the kind of education we’re delivering,” she said.
While per-student funding has increased to $4,964 from $4,560 during Blagojevich’s term, Illinois still ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of contribution to public education.
Groups favoring school finance reform proposals urged the advisory board as late as Monday to support reforms that would reduce reliance on local property taxes and pump up the state’s contribution to schools.
But chairman Steve Demitro, a lawyer, said the board’s powers are limited under state law, including recommending a per-student foundation level and a few other tasks.
After the meeting, however, Demitro did not rule out discussions on school finance reform in future board meetings.
Prior to Blagojevich’s recent appointments, the Education Funding Advisory Board made broad recommendations about school finance reform, including reducing property taxes and increasing the state income tax to pay for schools.
The new board’s recommendation of $6,405 “is an obligation that can only be met by increasing revenues. How it’s done is up to the legislature and the governor,” said Arthur Berman, a board member and former state senator.
“I am sure that if I looked at the speeches of all of them, legislators and the governor, they would have used the phrase `education is my top priority.”‘ Berman said. “We have given the legislators and the governor the dollar figures necessary to provide an adequate education for every child in the public schools of Illinois. And when I say adequate, I’m not talking about a Mercedes-Benz, I’m talking about a Chevrolet.
“I want them [politicians] to live up to their campaign speeches and to take care of our children.”