Page 11 - Leadership Matters February 2013_3140b78f.pub
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Budget, cost shift
and school safety
shape spring agenda
The education legislative agenda for
the 98
th
General Assembly is
beginning to take shape. While the
intertwined issues of budget and
pension reform — including the
controversial cost-shift proposal —
look to occupy center ring of the
spring session circus, other important
issues like school safety and the
never-ending
struggle
against
unfunded mandates will make for
interesting sideshows.
The education budget showdown
Governor Quinn is scheduled to deliver his “State
of the State” address February 6 and his “Budget
Address” March 6, so we soon will know where he
stands on the issue of funding for public education. We
already have a pretty good hint given that his office
released a preliminary report indicating cuts of up to
$400 million for the FY14 education budget.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
recently released its
alling for
full funding of General State Aid (GSA) as the largest
part of an $874 million increase. It is really important
that superintendents and other educational leaders get
behind restoring GSA to its foundation level after
public schools suffered through an 11 percent cut this
school year. If education is cut as deeply as the
governor has suggested, it is estimated that GSA
could dip as low as 80 percent of the foundation level
in FY14. Here is a link to the full
Cost shift rears its head again
As quickly as the cost shift disappeared during the
lame-duck session in early January, it has reappeared
in bills proposed by Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) and
Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook).
Senate Bill 35 and House Bill 98 both mirror the
language in the Nekritz-Biss-Cross bill in that they offer
no choice provision and include a pensionable salary
cap, a four-year freeze on cost-of-living adjustments,
no COLA until age 67, a 2 percent increase in
employee contributions – and the cost shift.
Senate Bill 1, introduced by Senate President John
Cullerton (D-Chicago), includes two parts. Part A
mirrors SB 35 and HB 98 except for the fact it does not
have a cost shift. Part B offers employees and retirees
a choice to keep their 3 percent compound COLA in
exchange for giving up
access to the state’s
health insurance plan
and foregoing future
salary increases for calculating pension benefits. Part
B is considered the constitutional “backstop” if any
provision in Part A is ruled unconstitutional by the
courts.
The impact of the cost shift on school districts
could be substantial on top of budget cuts and
unfunded mandates. And the pressure to take some
sort of action on the pension reform issue continues to
mount. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services recently
again lowered the state’s credit rating, this time to A-,
just a couple steps above junk bond rating.
"While legislative action on pension reform could
occur during the current legislative session and various
bills have been filed, we believe that legislative
consensus on reform will be difficult to achieve given
the poor track record in the past two years," the ratings
agency said.
School safety on agenda after Sandy Hook tragedy
The governor held a School Safety Summit on
January 22 to discuss ways in which we might make
our schools safer and ways to lessen the chances of
another tragic incident such as occurred at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
IASA along with School Management Alliance
partners the Illinois Association of School Boards
(IASB), the Illinois Principals Association (IPA) and the
Illinois Association of School Business Officials
(IASBO) attended as well as law enforcement,
emergency management, public health, the Illinois
Education Association (IEA), the Illinois Federation of
Teachers (IFT), ISBE and other stakeholders.
Lots of good ideas were discussed, including the
importance of School Resource Officers (SROs), ways
to enhance the security of entrances to schools,
getting more mental health resources involved and
trying to promote a culture in which students would
report threats of school violence. While some of those
items might only involve training or a change in
procedures, much of what was discussed would
involve expenditures.
No one is opposed to enhancing school safety, but
if unfunded mandates emerge, many school districts
Diane Hendren,
Chief of Staff /
Director of
Governmental
Relations
