Critics of SB1 say that it’s a bailout for CPS (Chicago Public Schools); that CPS should receive their normal cost pensions or the block grants, but not both. CPS includes a fifth of the state’s total student population; it’s also the only school district in Illinois that is responsible for covering its teacher pension payments. SB1 would amend that inequity, including additional state dollars to offset the amount of local funding CPS uses to cover the cost both of current pensions and legacy payments from years past when pensions were not properly funded. Illinois’ current system is the “least equitable education funding in the country”, and Governor Rauner, last year convened a 25-member funding reform commission to find a new formula. SB1 has passed both the Illinois House and Senate and “seeks to raise each one of Illinois’ 860-plus school districts to individual adequacy targets — or the amount of money needed to properly educate every student — through increased funding from the state”.
Trish Forsyth Voss
Jun 16 2017
Should Gov. Rauner sign SB1?
Critics of SB1 say that it’s a bailout for CPS (Chicago Public Schools); that CPS should receive their normal cost pensions or the block grants, but not both. CPS includes a fifth of the state’s total student population; it’s also the only school district in Illinois that is responsible for covering its teacher pension payments. SB1 would amend that inequity, including additional state dollars to offset the amount of local funding CPS uses to cover the cost both of current pensions and legacy payments from years past when pensions were not properly funded. Illinois’ current system is the “least equitable education funding in the country”, and Governor Rauner, last year convened a 25-member funding reform commission to find a new formula. SB1 has passed both the Illinois House and Senate and “seeks to raise each one of Illinois’ 860-plus school districts to individual adequacy targets — or the amount of money needed to properly educate every student — through increased funding from the state”.
Trish Forsyth Voss
By spiritspeak • Community Roundtable 0