The euphoria following passage of a state school-funding plan has turned to fear for some northwest suburban school administrators who worry that promised state aid will evaporate after next school year.
Legislation signed into law last week gives high school districts less cash. And a longtime state policy that promised all districts would receive the same or more state aid in each passing year ends after next school year.
That worries some school administrators in the northwest suburbs. Already, they are predicting less state aid for some healthy districts, especially those with high schools. And while construction grants are among the candy offered to appease wealthier districts, many don’t qualify.
“This is just a Band-Aid, and they still haven’t addressed the entire issue . . . we just have to live with it,” said Ronald Steigerwald, assistant superintendent for finance and operations at Township High School District 214.
Like many districts statewide, the Arlington Heights-based district watched state aid dwindle as expenses doubled over the past decade. In 1987, District 214 received $3.3 million in state aid, or roughly 3.6 percent of the district’s revenues. Ten years later, state aid has dropped to $2.8 million, or roughly 1.8 percent of revenues.
According to state figures, the district will get $2.8 million again in the 1998-99 school year. But if the state does not make up what administrators fear could be losses resulting from the new formula, as the state has agreed to do for next year only, District 214 could lose as much as $525,000 in 1999-2000.
The path would be similar for nearby districts. Palatine-based Township High School District 211 could lose as much as $1.2 million; Schaumburg Elementary District 54, $531,000; Maine Township High School District 207, $387,000; and Palatine Community Consolidated District 15, $225,000, according to the state figures.
Six other northwest suburban districts each could lose $83,000 or less. Only five northwest suburban districts could get more state aid after next school year, but the figures are considered a pittance–between $20,000 and $100,000 each.
The lone exception is Elgin Unit District 46, which has not yet decided how it will spend the $15.5 million in additional state aid it is scheduled to receive next school year.
But even such a large infusion of cash does not stretch as far in the sprawling district. With 49 schools, 34,000 students and an annual influx of 1,000 students, it is massive compared with neighboring districts.
District 46 is Illinois’ second-largest public school district, behind Chicago’s.
“The bottom line is because of our growth and several years of reduction, we’ll be trying to restore cuts we’ve made,” District 46 spokesman Larry Ascough said. “On the surface it sounds great, and we’re not complaining. But our taxpayers have been picking up a disproportionate share of financing schools for some time.”
“The (change in the formula) is obviously a good thing for the district,” added Gordon Schulz, District 46’s assistant superintendent of finance. “It’s recognition of what we have been telling the legislature all along, that funding is not adequate.”
The goal of the new law was to buttress Chicago public schools and districts such as District 46 that have weak tax bases. The law is designed to ensure that each school district spends at least $4,225 on each student annually, a figure generated last year by a state task force.
But most northwest suburban districts have strong tax bases compared with Downstate schools. They also spend much more than the new $4,225 threshold and serve a comparatively small number of impoverished families.
Some, such as Barrington Unit District 220, might hit one-time jackpots if voters approved construction projects in the past two years, or if a project is planned for 1998. In addition to the changes in the state-aid formula, the new law provides for limited state assistance to districts with building projects.
District 220 is to receive roughly $680,000 toward construction projects, while Park Ridge Community Consolidated District 64 is to receive roughly $800,000 in building-grant cash.
The Mt. Prospect Elementary District 57 Board is trying to figure out if a $1.5 million re-roofing project qualifies for a state reimbursement.
“When you include tax caps in your discussion, and the fact that school districts have to keep taking care of their facilities, the state might be looking at a way to help us out,” said Paul Halverson, District 57’s director of facilities and services.
But as school officials already have begun to figure out, it takes a magnifying glass and an interpreter to understand the full ramifications of the new law.
Lawmakers will have to decide each year whether they want to send less money to certain school districts. And, unlike the current school-aid formula, the new plan favors neither elementary school nor high school districts. State officials used to favor high schools.
The thinking was high schools 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.
For years, the state also abided by a “hold harmless” policy of trying not to give a local school district less state aid than it got the year before. The new plan makes the promise only for next year.
The only major guarantee in the plan is that no school district will have less than $4,225 for each student once state and local money is counted. That amount will rise by $100 a year in 2000 and again in 2001.
