Kadner: School funding panel lacks guts

Taking the cowardly way out, a commission tasked by Gov. Bruce Rauner with revising the state’s school funding formula decided not to recommend any specific legislation.

Instead, the 25-member bi-partisan panel reached the conclusion that school districts with the poorest students need more funding, a fact that has been almost universally acknowledged by education experts throughout the country over the past 30 years.

It ought to be noted, however, that conservatives have repeatedly said that there is no correlation between funding and academic achievement, conveniently ignoring the fact that in Illinois the wealthiest school districts spend significantly more on education than the poorest (even though their children generally start life with far greater advantages).

The commission’s report, released on Wednesday, states that the “disparity in school funding and student outcomes is alarming.”

“On average the state’s school districts with the greatest number of low-income students receive 20 percent less than wealthier districts,” the commission noted.

The report recommends spending $3.5 billion more on public education over the next 10 years with most of that money going to school districts with the poorest children.

That’s a nice thought, but the money doesn’t exist and the governor and state legislators can’t even agree on a budget.

At least four previous reports by blue ribbon panels in Illinois have reached the same conclusion as this one. The state does an inadequate job of funding schools and the children most in need suffer.

About 67 percent of the money to fund public education in Illinois comes from local property taxes, which hit middle- and lower-income communities the hardest, often driving out businesses that are essential to funding education while lowering property values.

“The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education,” according to the Illinois Constitution, yet for 30 years the state has supplied less than 33 percent of the money.

Our property tax rates, among the highest in the nation, have become so unpopular that Republican Rauner has made a tax freeze one of his priorities, an idea that many Democrats have since embraced.

The impact on many local school districts could be devastating, but no one has really addressed that issue.

In announcing his reform commission last summer, Rauner said, “We need more equity and we need to increase state support in funding level and that will be the goal of the commission to recommend how to do that.”

So the governor appointed members to the commission, the Democratic leaders of the Senate and House appointed members to the commission, and the Republican leaders of the Senate and House appointed members of the commission. The Illinois education secretary chaired the commission.

And more than 30 hearings and meetings were held where people spent a lot of time talking and discussing the need to do something.

They agreed, to their everlasting credit, that something indeed ought to be done, thereby joining the long list of state legislators and governors who have agreed something ought to be done since the 1990s.

What these people failed to do, however, was agree on language for a law that would actually increase school funding, reduce property taxes and provide an adequate level of education for all children in this state.

The recommendation to wait 10 years to adequately fund the schools is outrageous. Generations of students have gone through Illinois schools lacking the financial support they deserved according to the state constitution. Responsible adults, elected leaders, should shout, “No more!”

I have said it many times before but it bears repeating: When it comes to education in Illinois, elected officials lie.

They lie to get elected. They lie to stay in office. They lie about their efforts to help the children of Illinois.

Our schools, our children, our state, deserve better.

Email: philkadner@gmail.com

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