When after months of debate, the Illinois legislature passed a plan last week to funnel more money to public schools and Gov. Jim Edgar signed it, many officials rushed to applaud the move.
Others, however, bellowed that after all the fuss is over, the spending plan will not put more money in their pockets.
Meantime, taxpayers are bewildered about whether the measure does mean more money for Illinois public schools.
The short answer is yes. Many schools will receive more money from the state for at least next year and none–not even the wealthiest districts in DuPage County or anywhere else–will get less.
But authorities caution the guarantee that individual districts won’t get less state aid than they received the previous year lasts for only one fiscal year. After that, many high school districts face losses under the new aid formula unless state lawmakers vote to provide extra funds for them.
Statewide, funding is going up 19.6 percent, according to a preliminary estimate from state school officials. DuPage County schools will get $23.8 million more in state aid, nearly a 44 percent increase. Meantime, Kane County schools will receive an estimated $34.3 million extra.
In DuPage, the biggest financial winner is Indian Prairie Unit School District 204. A state report estimates the district, which serves portions of Naperville, Aurora and Bolingbrook, will receive an additional $11.6 million in state aid, largely because of the district’s skyrocketing growth.
District officials, however, question the dollar figure supplied by the state. According to Douglas Gallois, assistant superintendent for business and operations, the calculation was made based on outdated property value statistics and the actual boost may be closer to $7 million.
Still, the extra cash may allow District 204 to postpone for as many as two years a potential property-tax increase that would pay salaries for additional staff and other costs. Indian Prairie officials had been considering seeking a tax increase from voters as early as 1999.
Queen Bee Elementary School District 16 in Glendale Heights will get nearly a 50 percent boost in state aid, more than $900,000. In an area with little commercial property to help boost local tax revenue, the extra money will be used to reduce an education-fund deficit that officials said was caused when the district decided to operate in the red instead of laying off teachers and increasing class sizes.
State Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-Naperville), who voted against the bill, is among those who caution that lawmakers must continue to approve the school-funding package every year.
The bottom line is that many schools, especially those already spending more than the bare-bones amount on each pupil per year, will not get a substantial increase from the state next year.
The only major guarantee in the plan is that no school district will have less than $4,225 to spend on each student once state and local money is counted. A 1996 task force appointed by Gov. Jim Edgar concluded that figure is the minimum needed for a basic education in Illinois. The dollar total will increase by $100 in both 2000 and 2001.
The administration has estimated the amount each school district will receive based on the average daily attendance and local property values from previous years. The dollar amounts will change some in July when the latest figures are calculated.
The main idea behind the plan is to send more money to poorer districts. Districts in wealthier areas can raise money through local property taxes more easily than their poorer counterparts, and the state tries to help make up the difference.
And, unlike the current school-aid formula, the new plan favors neither elementary school nor high school districts. The formula for decades provided 25 percent more in state aid for high school students because of the belief their education required more money. Now officials reason that money spent in the formative years is equally important.
For the next year, the state has a “hold-harmless” policy of not giving a local school district less state money in any given year than it received the previous school year. But this is not guaranteed in the new plan beyond the first year.
Cowlishaw said the legislature could decide in 1998 that high school districts might get less money than under the previous plan. In DuPage and other counties, districts consisting solely of high schools could ultimately be losers.
“I am pleased for the school districts that will receive additional funds,” said Supt. Robert Stevens of Glenbard High School District 87. “But it is hard to predict how much money we’re going to get.”
Under the new formula, according to the districts, Glenbard ultimately faces a loss of $1.2 million a year. Other DuPage high school districts also face cuts. Among them are Hinsdale District 86, $172,083; DuPage District 88, $219,664; West Chicago District 94, $226,766; Downers Grove District 99, $442,514; Fenton District 100, $62,359; and Lake Park District 108, $283,603.
In Kane County, Elgin U-46 School District initially will get $15.6 million more in state aid, according to the state figures. Other Kane districts receiving substantially more cash include Aurora East Unit School District 131, $4.2 million; Aurora West Unit School District 129, $3.6 million; Batavia Unit School District 101, $2.1 million; and Geneva Unit School District 304, about $677,000.
But St. Charles Unit School District 303 could face a loss of $601,836, officials said, unless state lawmakers continue the hold-harmless provision next year.
