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State of the State: Poetry or Prose?
My reaction to Governor
Rauner’s State of the State
speech in which he outlined a
10-point plan for education
could be summed up as being
impressed with the “What” but
wondering about the “How.”
Parts of the plan certainly seem
to align with our Vision 20/20
blueprint for the future of public
education in Illinois. But, as
many people have wondered,
are we campaigning or
governing?
The first point in Rauner’s plan is to work with
Senate President John Cullerton on a new school
funding formula. I don’t think it is a coincidence that
this goal is listed first. Not only is it vitally important to
revamp the formula, this proposal, along with Rauner
embracing Cullerton’s
pension reform plan,
may be the first signs
of thawing in the
budget Cold War – at
least where Cullerton
is concerned. House
Speaker Michael
Madigan adopted a
wait-and-see stance
after the speech and
no budget deal gets
done without his
stamp of approval.
Cullerton has
characterized school
funding reform as his
“Turnaround Agenda.”
While the Senate President supports the formula fix
proposed by his former chief of staff, Senator Andy
Manar, Governor Rauner’s goal included the caveat
that state support for low-income and rural districts
would be increased “without taking money away from
any other districts.” That hold-harmless clause would
remove many of the political obstacles that have
prevented fixing the formula that was last revised 19
years ago. It’s the approach that appears to be
politically doable.
Of course, that’s where the “How” becomes
critical because that goal cannot be accomplished
without investing additional dollars in the public
school formula, a fact Cullerton acknowledged,
saying “it’s something we can work on.” The timing
would appear to be perfect to include the evidence-
based funding model that was part of Vision 20/20
and was co-sponsored last year by Republican
Senator Jason Barickman and Democrat Senator
Manar. Perhaps a blended approach combining the
best elements of both plans could emerge and
resolve this issue.
The impact of Vision 20/20 also seems evident in
another of Rauner’s goals that calls for developing a
“comprehensive, consistent, objective student growth
measure, not necessarily based on the PARCC
system, so we can track our students’ progress in
each grade towards college or career, holding our
schools accountable for results while eliminating
unnecessary testing and bureaucratic mandates.”
Vision 20/20 promotes educating the whole child,
less emphasis on standardized tests, the importance
of vocational education and a new way in which to
evaluate the effectiveness
of schools called the
Illinois Balanced
Accountability Measure
(IBAM). IBAM, which was
designed to reduce the
weight given to
standardized tests and
compliance checks, was
signed into law by the
governor last summer. It
would give schools the
flexibility to also include in
their assessment unique
programs and
characteristics -- such as
excellent agriculture,
vocational or
entrepreneurial programs – that are important to their
students and communities.
The recent passage of the federal Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) likely will require some
fine-tuning of IBAM to make certain that Illinois is in
full compliance with federal regulations. Our Legal
Counsel Sara Boucek already is working with ISBE
and the U.S. Department of Education and we are
confident that those things will be resolved.
Other parts of the Governor’s 10-point plan that
would be hard for anyone to argue with are to provide
proper funding for early childhood education and
supporting partnerships between high schools and
community colleges with local employers to provide
Message from the
Executive Director
Dr. Brent Clark
Still, there were a few sound bites and
intangibles that left me with some optimism.
The “How” was not explained in detail (the
governor’s Budget Address is scheduled for
February 17one week after President Obama
will have addressed the General Assembly),
but the fact that education was front and
center in Governor Rauner’s address was
encouraging and many of the points listed
above certainly seem to be items we can
work with going forward.