Public education advocates say Illinois’ evidence-based funding model has adequately funded schools. However, one lawmaker says students are still underperforming.
Illinois’ evidence-based K-12 schools funding model aims to send more state resources to areas determined to be “under-resourced.” On Tuesday, the Illinois House Appropriations committee met with school and tax advocates to discuss the future of the model ahead of budget season.
Robin Steans of Advance Illinois, a public education policy and advocacy organization, said they have had success but still need more money.
Only two districts are below 60% of full funding, so a huge amount of progress has been made in a relatively short period of time,” Steans said. “There’s lots of work still to do because half of our students are still in districts below 75% of adequacy.”
Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability said the program deserves more funding due to its success.
“What’s great about having the evidence based funding formula is we can evaluate it with data to see if it is working, and it is,” Martire said. “In fact, a strong argument could be made that an even greater investment should be going in.”
According to Illinois Report Card, the state spent over $16,000 in operational spending per student in 2022. That’s up from $13,300 in 2017.
Read more here.
Note: According to the Report Card, Barrington CUSD 220 spends $19,000 per student, per year, and that report can be viewed here. CUSD 300 spends $14,000 per student, per year, and that report can be found here.
Leave a Reply