Thank you for contacting me regarding Senate Bill 16 (State School Funding Formula Change). Here is what suburban taxpayers should know: Last week Crain’s reported on Democrat leaders of the Illinois House meeting quietly to discuss SB16, a Senate Bill that significantly changes the allocation of state education dollars to school districts. You can read the article here: chicagobusiness/article/20140905/NEWS02/140909894/madigan-quietly-gathers-illinois-lawmakers-to-discuss-school-funding# As your representative, I am very concerned about the negative impact this bill, as passed by the Senate last session (it was not called for a vote in the House), will have on the school districts in this region. As a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Appropriations committee, I was not invited to any of these meetings even though taxpayer funded staff from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) were involved in the discussions. The Crain’s article also pointed out that the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee gave an Associated Press reporter a briefing on these meetings, even though no one from the Republican Caucus was briefed at any time. Members of the Democrat Caucus in attendance, as reported by Crain’s, were not members of the Appropriations committee, but rather were Democrat leaders of the House. You should know that keeping suburban legislators, from either caucus, away from these discussions is a diminishment of your representation. This bill will dramatically impact teachers, taxpayers, students, and ultimately home values in this area. I am in the process of organizing a town hall meeting on this topic that will take place within the next few weeks. Details are being worked out and I encourage everyone to attend. As an example of how SB16 could impact us locally, this bill will take $9.8 million away from CUSD 200, an 82% drop in state funding, or the equivalent of funding for 150 teachers. The result will potentially be teacher layoffs and/or property tax hikes through a referendum because we are tax capped. Conversely, Aurora School District 131 will increase its state funding by 18%, regardless of the fact that only 19% of their graduates are considered “college ready.” In dollars per student, the new formula means the state will spend $6,967 for an Aurora student and only $166 per student in Wheaton. Under the proposed plan, school districts that underperform are being rewarded with additional dollars. I do not disagree that the school funding formula needs adjustment. As a bit of background, read this report by the Senate Republicans: senategop.state.il.us/Portals/0/Docs/Cost-Shift-FINAL.pdf?timestamp=1409174250732 I have advocated for a change in the funding formula. However, not only does the funding formula need adjustment, but the factors that are used in the formula such as poverty count, EAV and student attendance numbers also need to be certified because they are inaccurate. The Senate sponsor of the bill admitted through testimony, in response to my questions, that he never looked at how the underlying factors that feed the formula are determined. This must be done. Here is a link to the master spreadsheet on which school districts win or lose under SB16. It is public information on the ISBE website: isbe.net/efac. There is a PDF of the data sorted by Representative District at the bottom. Do you want even more information on how the state funding formula works? Read Tax Facts from April and June 2010 put out by the Tax Federation of Illinois. Use this link to access them: iltaxwatch.org/pages/show/tax_facts Thank you again for your concern and please stay tuned for more on this very important issue. Representative Jeanne Ives Bob Orr Amy Hungness Orr They specifically name Wheaton in here. This is total crap.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 20:14:57 +0000
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