Gov. Bruce Rauner is launching a new bipartisan panel to study the way the state distributes money to local school districts and issue recommendations for making the system fairer. In fact, a study past year from The Education Trust found that IL has the widest funding gap between high-poverty and low-poverty districts.
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He said the bipartisan commission will work to develop an equitable, adequate and affordable school funding formula.
“Illinois is dead last in terms of the share of education funding that the state puts into our elementary, secondary schools, and the gap between the rich and the poor resourced districts is the largest”, Pritchard says. “It’s the way that people raise their quality of life, their standard of living, their incomes”.
Rauner, a Republican, and the four legislative leaders – two Republicans and two Democrats – each will name five members to the commission. One of the governor’s picks is Education Secretary Beth Purvis, who will serve as chairwoman.
The Republican told reporters Tuesday in Chicago that the bipartisan group of 25 people will study the issue and give their recommendations to his office and the General Assembly by February 1, 2017.
The complicated way that IL uses to determine how much money schools receive has always been contentious.
Pritchard says achieving reform is necessary if IL is to give all its citizens the opportunity to reach their full potential. “The current school funding formula is archaic and in need of an overhaul”.
The Senate has approved several school funding bills in recent years, including versions two this spring, that have languished in the House. The House had its own education funding task force, which held a series of hearings.
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Appointees include Republicans Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) said.
