Gurnee School District 56 Supt. Wayne Schurter says his district does not count on much help from the state, and the state has rarely done anything to change that view.
So, when the legislature passed a landmark $485 million school-funding plan and Gov. Jim Edgar signed it last week, Schurter held out absolutely no hope that this time around would be any different.
“We get what the little boy shot at– nothing. That’s a quote from my grandmother,” Schurter said Tuesday. “We figured we probably weren’t getting any money anyway. Hopefully, the districts in worse shape than we are, (the funding plan) will help them.”
Generally speaking, that’s exactly what will happen in Lake County school districts, which will receive an overall $18.6 million more next year as the result of the legislation, according to preliminary funding figures released by the state. Two of the bigger winners among Lake County districts are Lake Villa School District 41 and Grayslake School District 46, both getting about $1.17 million more in state aid for the next school year.
But no other district in Lake County can boast a state-aid windfall such as that of Waukegan Community School District 60, which is getting almost $7.1 million more.
“Over the last two years, we have been running budget deficits,” said Robert Kurtz, District 60’s interim superintendent. “It should allow us to come closer to balancing our budget and do some things for kids that we haven’t been able to. The children are the beneficiaries of this particular funding bill.”
Overall, Lake County school districts will receive about 24 percent more money next year from the state. By contrast, DuPage County districts will see nearly 44 percent more money, or about $23.8 million. Lake’s neighbor to the west, McHenry County, will receive a total of about $12.5 million, or about a 48 percent increase.
Chicago schools are scheduled to receive an extra $105.2 million, an increase of about 19 percent.
Some Lake County districts did not fare so well, mostly because they have huge property tax bases and already generate lots of money for their students. The legislation was designed to offset such discrepancies.
For example, Bannockburn School District 106 will receive only $232 more next year, according to the state, while several other local districts will receive no new funds.
“To some districts in Lake County, it’ll be a real boon, but . . . it’s not going to benefit us very much,” said Supt. Jim Taylor of Zion School District 6, which according to the state is not scheduled to receive more funds. “I’m certainly pleased and happy the legislature passed the bill. It certainly moves in the right direction with providing more money to education, but I do think we must continue to look for more alternative sources (of funding) for schools than the property tax.”
Libertyville Community High School District 128 Supt. Donald L. Gossett said his district also will receive nothing more next year from the state. He said he and fellow high school superintendents knew there was little or no money for high school districts throughout the state–which overall will receive only about 1 percent more money.
“We didn’t expect any (state aid), and I think you’d find that’s the case with most high school superintendents,” Gossett said.
Gossett said the district, which saw a referendum measure pass in November approving the building of a high school and fixing up of the existing one, should get some money back in the form of construction grants.
Patrick G. Patt, superintendent of Oak Grove School District 68, said his district will receive an extra $8,938, but he’s not sore about it.
“The bottom line,” Patt said, “is that some of the districts that need money will get it.”
Despite the fears revolving around it, the legislation is crafted to ensure that no school will get less money next year.
But 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 in money from the state next year.
The guarantee that those wealthier schools won’t get less state aid than they got the previous year only lasts for one year. After that, lawmakers will have to decide each year whether they want to send less money to certain schools.
For years, the state has also abided by a “hold harmless” policy of trying not to give a local school district less state money in any given year than it got the prior year.
But the new law makes the promise only for next year. That could mean that some schools could lose money in the future.
In fact, 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.
That number was generated by an Edgar-appointed task force, which concluded in 1996 that $4,225 was the minimum needed for a basic education in Illinois. That amount will rise by $100 a year in 2000 and again in 2001.
Unlike the current school-aid formula, the new plan favors neither elementary school nor high school districts. State officials used to favor high schools because they thought they needed more money for sophisticated equipment, said State Board of Education spokeswoman Kim Knauer.
But officials now reason that money spent in the formative years is just as important.
