Why schools are still at risk, despite the new state budget

SALINE COUNTY – Though Illinois passed its first state budget in two years, many public school districts still face uncertain futures, superintendents say.

That's because legislation providing a new funding mechanism for those districts remains uncertain.

Known as Senate Bill 1, or SB1, the legislation provides an "evidence-based" approach to funding school districts. It raises state funding to match what are called "adequacy targets," which is the amount needed to educate each student in the district. It uses the amount of state funding a district already receives – in theory – and adds to that dollar amount over time.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he would veto SB1.

Bryce Jerrell, superintendent of Carrier Mills-Stonefort Unit 2 School District, said uncertainty over what will become of SB1 has his district and many others in a holding pattern.

"Senate Bill 1 was passed in the House and the Senate. However, the Senate has yet to send it to the governor, and he has said he will veto SB1. He could also keep the bill for 30-60 days for consideration," Jerrell said. "The belief is that the House and Senate will not have enough votes to override this veto, if and when it happens.

"This means that although we have a state budget for the first time in three years, schools do not have a funding formula which would deliver their funding for this year."

Harrisburg Unit 3 Superintendent Mike Gauch has traveled to Springfield, spoken with legislators and hosted discussion panels about school funding solutions.

Gauch said that sending the bill to Rauner to sign might have unintended negative consequences for schools.

"If he holds it for 60 days, right now, that would put us into the middle of September, which is about how long we could keep school open with no new funding coming in," Gauch said.

Gauch also said he plans to open school as usual in August at this point.

"The overriding opinion among school districts and administrators around the state is that if we have money, that money came from the taxpayers through property taxes and if we don't use it to run the school, we could face legal action from the communities," he said. "Plus, we also have a commitment to pay our teachers, at least until we run out of money."

But, if school opens and then has to close because the funding model isn't approved, districts like Harrisburg will be in even worse shape financially, he said.

"If we have to shut down for a couple of months, I'm going to have seniors who move to other districts, because they have to graduate. If they're still going to school in July, they will miss out on college scholarships," Gauch said. "And, if I have students moving out of my district, then we'll get less money from the state because it's based on our attendance. It's a mess."

Jerrell said time is quickly slipping away for a resolution.

"We are supposed to receive our first state aid payment on Aug.10, but without a formula, we have no way of knowing what we will receive and are likely to receive nothing until the formula is completed," Jerrell said.

Another point of contention is categorical payments, Gauch said. Categoricals pay for district expenses like transportation, special education and free and income-based lunches. In a normal year, the state makes four quarterly payments to districts to pay for categorical expenses. Most, if not all, districts received one such payment this year.

Gauch, like most Illinois superintendents, can tell you what the amount his district is owed. For Harrisburg schools, it's just shy of $100,000.

But, categorical funding is not dependent on SB1, he said.

"The question I've asked, repeatedly, is why can't the state go ahead and send what it owes us for categoricals," Gauch said. "There's no formula. There's no reason I can see why they can't go ahead and send us that money. So far, no one has given me an answer."