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 Gov. J.B. Pritzker for a second year wanted to withhold the
$350 million education spending increase built into the 2017 school funding
formula, but changed his mind May 6 and announced he supports keeping the
promise to the state’s schoolchildren.
Pritzker’s reversal came after state lawmakers were gearing up to fight for the
money, which is targeted at closing funding gaps between wealthier and poorer
schools.
“I don’t want to go down the path of continuing to short our schools again,”
state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Aurora, said April 30.
Illinois failed to provide the extra money during the current budget year and
Pritzker was poised to keep it again July 1, the start of the fiscal year 2022
budget lawmakers are currently crafting. His change of heart also came after a
report showed Illinois revenues are up.
“Parents, students and educators can breathe a sigh of relief,” Pritzker said.
“As an education advocate myself, I am really all too happy that our improved
economic and fiscal condition allows us to increase educational funding.”
The extra cash was reflected in the latest report from the Illinois General
Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, which stated
revenue numbers outpaced predictions. Revenues fell by $2.74 billion in April
2020 but grew by $1.78 billion in April 2021, in part thanks to income tax
payments deferred in 2020 and to taxes collected from the American Rescue Plan.
“While the full story of FY 2021 revenues has yet to be written, given the onset
of the pandemic, receipts clearly have performed much better than any
prognosticator could have foretold one year earlier,” the COGFA report stated.
“Despite periodic upward revisions in the revenue projections throughout the
course of the fiscal year, each time those updated expectations have been met
and exceeded,” the report continued.
The Illinois State Board of Education requested a 4.6% funding increase earlier
this year in opposition to the governor’s flat education spending proposal.
ISBE’s request included $50 million for additional early childhood education
grants and $362 million for the evidence-based funding formula – a spending goal
written into 2017 education funding statute aimed at driving new money to the
districts farthest from funding “adequacy.”
Both Houses of the General Assembly must approve the state spending plan before
Pritzker will have the opportunity to sign or veto it.
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House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said
he was optimistic about the latest COGFA report, but the state still
needs to close a deficit of about $1.4 billion.
“The economy of the state of Illinois has been
performing better than we had expected,” Harris said. “And to be
honest, we initially planned for this year very conservatively, not
knowing what COVID would bring.”
While Pritzker is no longer trying to keep the money promised to
poorer schools, he is still trying to take back another promise to
low-income students. The Invest in Kids Scholarship Tax Credit
Program was passed in 2017 to offer low-income families scholarship
money so their kids can attend private schools when those schools
best suits their needs.
Pritzker wants to cut the tax credit to 40% from the 75% negotiated
when state lawmakers hiked state income taxes, which would take $14
million from the program. Pritzker targeted the scholarships even
though the income of participating families averages $38,000, and
49% are Black or Hispanic, according to Empower Illinois.
Public school failed to give Bose Clodfelter’s son the attention he
is now getting, thanks to a scholarship at St. Paul the Apostle
Catholic School in Joliet, Illinois.
“I think that it’s very important for people to have the ability to
donate to the tax credit scholarship program because they care about
the educational needs of the community and that people have the
choice and a right to get the education that they want for their
children,” Clodfelter said.
“It’s very important that politicians allow this tax credit to
continue so my family can have the opportunity to be a part of a
school system where our children and my family as a unit thrives.”
She said public schools still receive her property taxes but are
relieved of the requirement to educate her children, which relieves
the classroom crowding her son experienced in public school. In
fact, tax credit scholarships saved taxpayers $3,000 per scholarship
student in a study that looked at the 2013-2014 school year.
Pritzker targeted the program as part of nine taxes to generate $932
million. He portrayed them as “closing corporate tax loopholes.”
Clodfelter would disagree that her children’s educations are a
corporate loophole.
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