Leadership Matters - March 2013

Unfunded mandates leading to educational disaster

and Senate Bill 618 are on the docket -- all dealing with the mandate question (UIS-Illinois Issues, February 11, 2013). Maybe there is some hope. What is acceptable? The arguments of the negative impacts of programs being closed and the impact on overall curriculum are frequently used. These may have been acceptable arguments in the past, but not in today’s financial environment with all the additional state and federal bureaucracy that is being imposed on local school districts. Programs are

The Illinois funding crisis has been a focus of media, school districts and taxpayers for the past several years. This is not surprising since Illinois is reported to be in one of the worst state financial situations

Dr. James T. Rosborg Director of Master’s in Education McKendree University

in America. This situation has negatively impacted the finances of all state agencies including school districts. Included in this crisis is the failure of the legislature to address unfunded

being closed throughout the state because of financial reasons. Vocational, gifted, physical education, fine/ practical arts and co- curricular programs are in peril. Would it not make sense to protect these programs and limit some unnecessary mandates in order to provide Illinois students with a well- rounded curriculum? What is currently going on? State Superintendent Dr. Chris Koch now

mandates being imposed on school districts. What can IASA do? What can the local districts do? In my opinion, educators have to stick with the facts and provide evidence to all stakeholders to formulate change. IASA has supported efforts in the past to deal with the mandate issue. Former Rep. Roger Eddy, now the executive director of the

Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), submitted a bill in 2010 to give school districts the option of ignoring some mandates unless fully funded. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) did not support the bill because of its concerns about the negative impact on school curriculum (Galesburg, The Register Mail, February 12, 2010). Also, in their 2010 position statement, the Illinois Education Association (IEA) found that “eliminating mandates in order to save money for local school districts is not an acceptable alternative” (IEA Fact Sheet, 2010). There are some proposals being brought forth in the current legislative session. Senate Bill 3000, House Joint Resolution 74, House Bill 4711,

recognizes that both Illinois Courts and the Legislature have gone too far. Superintendent Koch realizes the latest requirement of having Certified School Nurses is not attainable and the 2009 court ordered special education class size limit is putting school districts in deep financial distress. The special education directive is much more stringent than current federal standards. What are the results? In a conversation with Dr. Darcy Benway, Superintendent of O’Fallon High School District 203, she summed it up well: “To meet our financial obligations, we will have to make major

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