Superintendents Toolkit 2013

Budget/Cost Shift Background:

The state budget for public education in Illinois has been on a downward spiral the past few years with General State Aid being prorated or cut by 5% in FY12 and by 11% in FY13.

Transportation funding has been reduced by 42% from FY10 levels.

Funding for Mandated Categoricals has been on a roller-coaster ride, having risen from FY04 through FY10, then falling 8.4% in FY11, rising by 0.04% in FY12 and dropping by 1.44% in FY13. The governor is scheduled to deliver his Budget Address to the General Assembly on March 6, but preliminary numbers released by his office in January call for a $400 million cut to the public education budget for FY14 to reach as much as a $1.4 billion cut by FY16 if the income tax increases are allowed to expire and nothing is done regarding the unfunded liability of the state’s pension systems. The Education Funding Advisory Board (EFAB) in its annual report to the General Assembly delivered in January of 2013 called for an increase in the GSA foundation level to $8,762, citing a national education funding model. The price tag to reach that level in FY14 would be $4.7 billion. Meanwhile, ISBE’s proposal for FY14 included an $874 million increase, $745 million of which would be needed to restore GSA to the foundation level of $6,119 as opposed to the 89% foundation-level funding for this school year. In sharp contrast to both EFAB’s and ISBE’s proposals to fund public education, Illinois remains dead last in the country in terms of providing funding for public education as illustrated in the chart to the left.

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