04/17/2014
Brendan Bond
The temporary income tax hike in Illinois is set to expire in January. Gov. Pat Quinn wants to extend it and make it permanent. So do most Democratic lawmakers, while most Republican lawmakers would like to see the increase expire.
At stake in the battle over whether to let the increase expire or not is millions of dollars in schools funds. Cuts that Quinn mentioned in his budget address would be “savage” would total just over $450 million according to a report put out by Senate Democrats.
State Journal-Register reporter Doug Finke has more:
The numbers were computed based on data provided by the State Board of Education. The figures are based on cuts Gov. Pat Quinn said would have to be made to education in the next budget if the tax hike is allowed to expire.
Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, said the numbers “might make us take a second look.”
“But we’ve also got to look at how they’ve mismanaged money since that tax has been in effect,” Poe said, referring to Democrats who control the legislature and governor’s office. “We still have $7 billion of unpaid bills. Medicaid has doubled. Sixty-four percent of the pension liability has happened under their leadership. There’s a lot of mismanagement going on here, and you can’t continue to throw money at it.”
Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, represents both of those school districts. He said the numbers have not changed his mind about letting the tax hike expire.
“I don’t believe (the numbers) are accurate,” Brauer said. “They are trying to put the burden on schools and not across-the-board. This thing was sold as a temporary tax increase, and to turn around and make it permanent, I think is disingenuous. We need to take care of our spending problem before we decide if we need more revenue.”
Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, said he expects the Democrats will have to pass an extension on their own.
“I would assume since they had enough support to pass it the first time, they’ll probably look to the same people to pass it again,” he said. “I’m opposed to it. We paid down $2 billion in bills with $28 billion in revenue. They haven’t followed through on anything else they’ve done, so I wouldn’t trust them to do it this time either.”
For more on specific cuts Springfield-area school districts, including the Rochester school district, would face according to the report, check out the article here.
Meanwhile, Tom Bertrand, the Rochester Community Unit School District 3A superintendent, wrote the second part of a two-part commentary on school funding in Illinois in the State Journal-Register. The first part is here.
The second part takes a look at how Bertrand believes poverty grants contribute to inequality among Illinois schools.
Writes Bertrand:
Although the foundation formula used for distributing General State Aid to Illinois’ public school districts was intended to equalize funding among schools, the state aid formula consists of a second grant called a Supplemental Poverty Grant.
These grants are based upon a district’s percentage of low-income students. The amount of state funding used to support this grant has increased dramatically in the past decade, and it now threatens to surpass the foundation formula in terms of new dollars that will be required to sustain it.
Yet, just as with the foundation formula, fundamental flaws in the Supplemental Poverty Grant formula contribute to the disparity in funding among Illinois’ schools.
A fundamental component of the grant formula is that the higher the concentration of low-income students, the more per student is paid to the district. Schools receive between $355 and $2,994 per low-income student, based entirely on the percentage of low-income students in the district.
If funding to schools gets cut, would that change which high schools are the best in Illinois? First, you should know which schools those are. Read on to find out.
Next article: What are Illinois’ 10 best high schools ranked by U.S. News and World Report?>>
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4. Check out our gallery of the best editorial cartoons from 2013.
5. Head over to Sound Off and let your legislators know that every child deserves excellent education.
Brendan Bond is an editorial assistant at Reboot Illinois. He is a graduate of Loyola University, where he majored in journalism. Brendan takes a look each day at the Land of Lincoln Lowdown and it’s often pretty low. He examines the property tax rates that drive Illinoisans insane. You can find Reboot on Facebook at and on Twitter @rebootillinois. His email is Brendan.Bond@rebootillinois.com.