Up To $7 Billion Still Needed To Properly Fund Illinois Schools

By Susie An
ISBE Mtg June
A world history class at Chicago's Kenwood Academy. Chicago Public Schools is among the 77% of Illinois school districts the state says aren't adequately funded. State officials say Chicago has 64% of what it needs to provide an adequate education. Marc Monaghan / WBEZ
ISBE Mtg June
A world history class at Chicago's Kenwood Academy. Chicago Public Schools is among the 77% of Illinois school districts the state says aren't adequately funded. State officials say Chicago has 64% of what it needs to provide an adequate education. Marc Monaghan / WBEZ

Up To $7 Billion Still Needed To Properly Fund Illinois Schools

By Susie An
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The Illinois State Board of Education on Wednesday said it could take as much as $7 billion to properly fund all public schools in the state.

The state is required to contribute $350 million annually to boost kindergarten through high school funding under a 2017 law that changed Illinois’ education funding formula. The latest state budget — and the first under new Gov. JB Pritzker — approved $375 million for this “evidence-based” funding formula.

The formula determines how far each district is from a funding level needed to provide all its students an adequate education based a variety of research-backed variables.

The State Board of Education on Wednesday discussed the progress of funding the state’s school districts. It would take about $660 million annually — up from the $350 million required now — to get all districts to 90% funding adequacy by 2027, or between $4.8 billion and $7 billion, according to Robert Wolfe, chief financial officer for ISBE.

“We have 655 school districts that are less than 90% of adequacy, which represents 77% of our districts and 81% of all students within the state,” Wolfe said.

He said 89% of new money since 2017 has gone to the poorest districts, which resulted in just a 2.3% increase in funding for those districts from 2018 to 2019. He said all but two Illinois counties had at least one district below 90% funding adequacy, and those two counties only represent three school districts.

Melissa Figueira of Advance Illinois, an education nonprofit, told ISBE members that the funding gap between low-income and non-low-income students is shrinking, but it isn’t closing as fast as it could be.

That’s because there has been a rise in English learners and low-income students, Figueira said. She also said while the state invested $300 million in new money in the 2018-19 school year, that was $50 million less than the funding formula goal.

“While the per-pupil funding gap is closing, especially between our low-income and non-low-income students, we’re still just about an average of 70% of adequacy statewide,” Figueira said. “So we have a ways to go.”

Susie An covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @soosieon.