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Illinois Evidence-Based School Funding
Formula targets equity and adequacy
Like most who have studied the issue of school
finance in Illinois, the coalition of front-line educators,
board members and business officials that developed
Vision 20/20 came to an inevitable conclusion: The
school funding formula needs to be changed – and in
a way that goes beyond rearranging the arbitrary
weights that drive the current formula.
The goal of providing equitable and adequate
funding for public schools became one of the four
main pillars of the Vision 20/20 document, a blueprint
for the future of public education in Illinois. After
several months of study, the Vision 20/20 committee
recommended the Illinois Evidence-Based Funding
Model created by professors at the University of
Wisconsin (Dr. Allan Odden) and the University of
Southern California (Dr. Lawrence Picus). That
model currently is being used in states such as
Maryland, Vermont and Wyoming and was studied
and vetted in 2010 by the Illinois School Finance
Adequacy Task Force -- a broad-based, bipartisan
group of educators, legislators, the business
community, advocacy groups and taxpayers.
Unlike models that use foundation levels and
Fulfilling the Promise of Public Education