{"id":39831,"date":"2016-04-13T17:04:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T22:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=39831"},"modified":"2016-04-13T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T23:03:10","slug":"lack-of-state-budget-devastates-cash-strapped-school-districts-superintendent-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lack-of-state-budget-devastates-cash-strapped-school-districts-superintendent-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of state budget devastates cash-strapped school districts: Superintendent Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harvard Zhang<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Springfield, Ill. — <\/strong> Illinois School Superintendent Tony Smith warned legislators that, without a K-12 budget by July 1, 187 school districts will have less than 100 days of cash on hand.<\/p>\n

Testifying Tuesday\u00a0before the\u00a0House appropriations committee, Smith underlined the looming cash crunch facing Illinois school districts, adding that they’re also having to\u00a0evaluate trade-offs in possible\u00a0different school funding formulas, all\u00a0with the gloomy prospect for an end to the state’s\u00a0budget deadlock prolonged perhaps until\u00a0after the November election.<\/p>\n

School districts suffer as Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic lawmakers\u00a0led by\u00a0House Speaker Michael Madigan clashed in a fresh round over the vista for school funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 100 days of cash on hand is not just for paying staff but interest on loans, because districts have been borrowing, making it more problematic,\u201d Smith testified.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The governor infuriated Chicago Public Schools earlier Tuesday by slashing the district\u2019s state funding for\u00a0fiscal year\u00a02017 commencing in July\u00a0by $74 million, or 7.7 percent below 2016 state aid. The Illinois State Board of Education detailed how much each of the\u00a0more than 800 school districts will receive in fiscal 2017 under Rauner\u2019s plan to\u00a0provide a minimum of $6,119 per student, the first time in seven years that school funding won’t be reduced.<\/p>\n

Under the General State Aid formula that considers school enrollment, the\u00a0number of students living in poverty, and local property tax values, the governor\u2019s plan would allot more funding to suburban and downstate schools, including Rockford District taking in an extra $4.8 million and a total $114.2 million.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s move came one day after veteran House Speaker Madigan proposed<\/a> a state constitutional amendment to double down on the state\u2019s role in public education. Madigan\u2019s proposal, suggesting Illinois has the \u201cpreponderant,\u201d not \u201cprimary,\u201d financial responsibility for financing public education, created the possibility of\u00a0lawsuits against the state if insufficient aid is\u00a0delivered.<\/p>\n

On rewriting the school funding formula, Smith said the education board, responsible for distributing state dollars to school districts, should play a role in evaluating and comparing trade-offs in various proposals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the core of the funding formula is on local property taxes, the degree and the range we have for what we\u2019re really going to do is actually pretty narrow,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Striving to solve school districts\u2019 over-reliance on local property taxes to fund education, State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) proposed last week to funnel state money to districts based on the needs of their students. But Manar\u2019s plan drew criticism from both sides of the aisle, notably on the state’s picking up more than $200 million in pension costs for Chicago Public Schools.<\/p>\n

Many state lawmakers and educators, despite this record-long budget crisis now in its tenth month, have advocated for education equality knowing that children\u00a0have unequal\u00a0opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re on the one-yard line and you want to get to the end zone, and if someone else is on the 50, very much likely that they\u2019re going to get there first,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe outcome is we want kids to be prepared to be contributing citizens. We in a public education system should be doing everything we can to differentiate resources around that same high standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Illinois State Education Superintendent Tony Smith, left, conferred with State Rep. William Davis, Chair of Illinois House Appropriations — Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, after a Tuesday committee hearing. (Harvard Zhang\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harvard Zhang Springfield, Ill. — Illinois School Superintendent Tony Smith warned legislators that, without a K-12 budget by July 1, 187 school districts will have less than 100 days of cash on hand. Testifying Tuesday\u00a0before the\u00a0House appropriations committee, Smith underlined the looming cash crunch facing Illinois school districts, adding that they’re also having to\u00a0evaluate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":39834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28,30,2582],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-interest","category-public-affairs","category-spring-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nLack of state budget devastates cash-strapped school districts: Superintendent Smith - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lack-of-state-budget-devastates-cash-strapped-school-districts-superintendent-smith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lack of state budget devastates cash-strapped school districts: Superintendent Smith - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Harvard Zhang Springfield, Ill. — Illinois School Superintendent Tony Smith warned legislators that, without a K-12 budget by July 1, 187 school districts will have less than 100 days of cash on hand. 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