Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan Thursday announced that he will re-convene hearings on the state’s education funding formula. The state's current formula relies heavily on property taxes, creating a big disparity among schools based on their property values. Some districts can spend more than $32,000 per student every year, while others scrape by on a fraction of that amount.
In his State of the State address, Illinois Gov. Rauner said that "Educating our young people" is the "single most important thing we do together as a community." Rauner pledged to increase aid to poor districts — and promised he wouldn’t take money from wealthier districts to do it.
State Senator Andy Manar, a Democrat from Macoupin County, prefers to change the formula.
"Are we gonna tell the district that only has $7,000 to spend per student that they have to sit and wait until the district that spends five times as much as they do is comfortable? That's what the governor was saying,” Manar says.
Manar is sponsoring legislation to change that formula. He also noticed that Governor Bruce Rauner avoided using a certain term when he outlined his education agenda in his recent State of the State address.
"I would have liked to have heard the word 'inequity' come from the governor during his speech because when you get past much of the rhetoric in a school funding reform debate, at the heart of the issue is inequity among children," Manar says.
The bi-partisan Education Funding Task Force formed by Madigan will hold its first meeting on February 16th.